Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 3, 5 and 165 together.

The background to the rapid response elements concept, commonly referred to as battle groups, is that at the European Council in Helsinki in 1999, member states set themselves a headline goal that by the year 2003, co-operating together and voluntarily, they would be able to deploy rapidly and then sustain forces capable of the full range of Petersberg Tasks as set out in the Amsterdam treaty. In short, these are humanitarian, rescue, peacekeeping and crisis management operations, including peacemaking. This included, inter alia, a capability to provide rapid response elements available and deployable at very high readiness. The ambition of the EU to be able to respond rapidly to emerging crises has and continues to be a key objective of the development of the European security and defence policy, ESDP.

Ireland's participation in such operations is entirely consistent with our foreign policy commitment to collective security which recognises the primary role of the UN Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security and our tradition of support for the United Nations. During his visit to Dublin in October 2004, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, stressed the importance of battle groups and requested Ireland's support for them.

At the Cabinet meeting of 16 November 2004, the Government agreed that I should advise my EU counterparts of Ireland's preparedness to enter into consultations with partners with a view to potential participation in rapid response elements. A military capabilities commitment conference was held on 22 November 2004 at which member states committed up to 13 battle group formations which will be available to deploy to crisis situations within a five to ten day period from 2005 onwards. A battle group co-ordination conference was held on 11 May 2005 at which initial offers and commitments by relevant member states were confirmed. It was noted that only one slot, the second semester of 2007, remains unfilled.

Ireland supports the development of the EU's rapid response capability in support of UN authorised missions and is positively disposed towards participation in the rapid response elements in this regard. However, it is important that the full implications of our participation are assessed and, to this end, I have established an interdepartmental group to report to me on the matter. This group met in December 2004 and has established three sub-groups to address the policy, legislative and operational issues arising.

The sub-groups met on a number of occasions over the summer to progress issues in regard to battle groups. The legal issues sub-group met on four occasions. The Attorney General's Office is now in the process of submitting its report on the legal issues involved to the Attorney General and I expect to receive his report shortly. Once the advice is received, the other two sub-groups will expedite the completion of their considerations and report to me shortly thereafter. I will then consider the report and advise the Government accordingly.

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