Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I do not agree with Deputy Timmins's final point. We will have to agree to disagree.

With regard to his technical questions on training, the troops will not be trained here. If we join the Nordic battle group, we will not be training in the UK. The training usually takes place in the framework state, which for the Nordic battle group is Sweden. It is 99.9% probable that the training will take place in Sweden. The Deputy also asked about a referendum to change the Constitution to allow foreign troops to train here. It is not high on the Government's list of priorities at the moment, but I do not think it is necessary in any case. The practice in multinational battle groups is that training usually takes place in the framework state. In this case, the framework state is Sweden. If we decide to join another battle group after 2010, it is most unlikely that we will be a framework state at that stage either. There are other issues on which we could hold a referendum that the Government might regard as more urgent.

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