Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 February 2007

3:00 pm

Photo of Willie O'DeaWillie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

It was a maximum of 200 troops. As the Deputy is aware, this is a joint operation with the Finns. We took advice from the Finnish armed forces as to the kind of detail they required of us. The number arrived at comes to 157 troops, in addition to the five personnel who were already there and the Finns regard this to be quite sufficient.

As for the task itself, in essence the Finnish contingent is an engineering brigade that will be involved in two things. First, it will be involved in reconstruction work, of which a great deal is needed in Lebanon. Second, the Finns will be engaged in clearing unexploded ordnance. The job of the Irish contingent is to provide them with protection as they carry out such work, lest they come under attack. I suspect the Chief of Staff probably advised me to hold back from visiting before now because most of the activity thus far has centred on the camp's establishment, which is a major job.

In addition, once deployed the Irish are at the disposal of the UNIFIL force commander, who can request them to perform other duties within their area of operations. As yet, I am unaware of any tasks he has asked them to perform. For example however, he could ask them to perform escort duty, patrols, etc., which would be beyond the protection duties being carried out at present.

It is true that the political climate has been volatile. As the Deputy is aware, Hizbollah is trying to pressurise the Lebanese Government to either cede more power to itself and its Christian allies or, alternatively, to resign. A number of demonstrations were held in December and January that culminated in a public strike on 23 January. I agree this makes for a dangerously volatile situation on the ground. Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to be holding well. I keep in touch with the situation on a daily basis and if it worsens dramatically, the Government will be obliged to take whatever action it deems to be necessary. It will do so in conjunction with, and on the advice of, the personnel on the ground.

Deputy Costello asked whether the Irish troops had come under fire. Thus far, the Irish troops have not come under attack from any source and they have been far away from the action. From the time of their arrival, there has been very limited action in the Lebanon. Most incidents occurred in the immediate aftermath of the ceasefire in the middle of August.

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