Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I will respond clearly as I would to any suggestion made in the House. I visited about 23 countries in Africa as Minister for overseas development on two occasions and my experience is that the Department of Foreign Affairs has used small aircraft in different situations in supporting the NGO effort. On the Defence side there are other supports through the UN. In Liberia I used some of the helicopters which were being used by the UN there. Of course I will be glad to pursue the suggestion the Deputy made. My gut feeling is that in analysing the costs it is better to use whatever commercial aircraft we can. We have a particular contribution to make with regard to our personnel. I have seen it in many places, such as Liberia and Kosovo. I have no doubt the same will happen here. We have to concentrate on what we are good at. Should we get a large aircraft? Is it cost effective? My feeling is that it would not be, but we can certainly make contributions elsewhere. The Deputy asked me to re-examine the matter and I will be happy to do that. This issue has been raised with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development.

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