David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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A number of committee members who visited Defence Forces installations in the past few years were briefed on the work of bomb disposal personnel. What struck me at the time - I am sure colleagues will agree - was the exceptional courage and bravery involved in neutralising some of the explosives used. The officers iinvolved had to put their own lives at risk. The Minister listed three scenarios. Where an improvised explosive device is placed in a location from which evacuation would take too long and-or is not possible, there is no other way to deal with it except that a person must manually interact with the device that could explode at any time. The person concerned has protection but depending on the payload used, it may not be sufficient. In the second scenario the person has to interact with improvised explosive devices that may contain a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threat, while in the third the person has to interact with sensitive home-made explosives which cannot be disarmed using remote techniques. It takes tremendous courage and bravery to do this work. We met young soldiers mainly, both men and women, who put their lives on the line and I was impressed by their professionalism. We see more and more of these explosive devices in Ireland. There was a recent case in Cork. I would appreciate it if the Minister could tell us, if he has the information to hand, the number of devices the Defence Forces have dealt with in Ireland in the past couple of months.