Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

It is extremely difficult for any family when a member of the family goes missing far from home. I can only empathise with the terrible situation in which the family find themselves. My colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has the lead role in respect of this issue. I understand from him that extensive efforts have been made by the consular service of the Department of Foreign Affairs to assist and support the family at this difficult time. The consular service has also maintained ongoing contact with the local police force, rescue services, politicians and senior officials in the region in which the town of Medjugorje is situated. Diplomatic officers and the ambassador have travelled from the Irish Embassy in Slovenia, which is also accredited to Bosnia-Herzegovina, to the region to review the search arrangements.

Since the person's disappearance, there have been six large scale searches, some of which involved the use of a helicopter. In addition to such large scale searches, there have been other, more localised, searches. The search continues and an officer from the Irish Embassy will again shortly visit Medjugorje to review the situation.

As Deputy Costello will appreciate, primary responsibility for conducting the search lies with the civil authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is not open to me simply to redeploy Irish Defence Forces personnel on a search mission within the borders of another sovereign state. The operational status of the Defence Forces personnel currently deployed in Operation Althea, the EU-led operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is determined by their mission and the mandate given to the mission by the United Nations. They cannot all simply be directed to leave their posts to undertake a search operation. From both a legal and an operational perspective, this would be untenable.

That said, to date the search has been supported and assisted, as far as is practicable, by the Defence Forces personnel based in the country. During the initial search, the head of the EU monitoring mission released an Irish staff officer in Mostar to act as liaison. In addition, following a request from the EU police mission, EUFOR provided a helicopter that conducted a number of search flights in September and October. Defence Forces personnel have also provided assistance where possible through their local knowledge and contacts. I expect that the Defence Forces, within the requirements of their mission, will continue to assist in whatever way they can.

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