Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his presentation and concur with the Chairman's remarks. My party has been supportive of the work of the European Defence Agency since it was initiated. It would be appropriate for the select committee to acknowledge the contribution and achievements of all those who have participated in the various programmes undertaken since 1994. One appreciates the importance of this programme and the development of manual neutralisation techniques which is obviously vital for the Defence Forces in so far as they have a responsibility to deal with crises, both at home and internationally.

It seems to be a very practical approach to dealing with a very real challenge. We can achieve maximum cost-efficiency by co-operating with other member states in acquiring the additional skills we need. I note that the Department of Defence ordnance school is enthusiastic in its support of this initiative. To that end, I fully support the proposal.

I would like to put two brief questions to the Minister. He said a four year training programme for six personnel would meet all future Defence Forces training requirements. Are we to take it that he is satisfied that when these personnel are trained, they will become the trainers? Will we subsequently be in a position to provide opportunities for other countries' defence forces personnel to come here?

The Minister alluded to figures for the numbers of devices. According to the figures available to me, there were 70 call-outs to deal with IEDs in 2011 and 96 in 2012. Such figures are frightening in a country as small and peaceful as Ireland. We know about the reasons for the continuous call-outs that had to be dealt with in the past, when the Defence Forces developed skills to deal with appalling situations. In the Minister's view, is there a strong correlation between the development of gangland crime and the drugs industry and the use of IEDs that has led to an ever-increasing number of call-outs which have to be dealt with by the Defence Forces?