Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1671 of 25 April 2006 authorised the EU to deploy a European Union Force, codenamed EUFOR RD Congo, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, in support of MONUC during the electoral period in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a period ending four months after the date of the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections there. The DRC authorities have welcomed the EU military support to MONUC during the electoral process. On 25 April 2006, the Council of the EU adopted a joint action to launch the EU mission in support of MONUC.

On 9 May 2006, the Government authorised me, as Minister for Defence, to despatch up to ten members of the Permanent Defence Force for service with the EUFOR RD Congo. Ireland offered up to ten staff officers for the headquarters. However, the mission is oversubscribed and, therefore, only seven of the ten will be deployed, five in Potsdam in the operational headquarters and two in Kinshasa in the force headquarters. The five Defence Forces officers assigned to the operational headquarters for the mission in Potsdam in Germany have been deployed. The deployment of the personnel to Kinshasa will take place shortly.

The key tasks of the EU mission are to support MONUC to stabilise a situation in case MONUC faces serious difficulties in fulfilling its mandate within its existing capabilities; to contribute to the protection of civilians under imminent threat of physical violence in the areas of its deployment and without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo; to contribute to airport protection in Kinshasa; to ensure the security and freedom of movement of the personnel as well as the protection of the installations of EUFOR RD Congo; and to execute operations of limited character to extract individuals in danger.

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