Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The first question, on the extent of the brief of EUFOR in Chad, is important. Its brief is to protect refugees and internally displaced persons, of whom there are approximately 450,000. It also has a mandate to protect UN personnel, equipment and installations. It is not just a matter of protecting the lives of people in the camps but also of ensuring the flow of aid to them is not interrupted. This involves a specific mandate to protect NGOs and UN personnel.

On the question of whether we have replaced the drones, I understand we have. One of them appears to have malfunctioned. We are discussing the issue with the supplier. As the Deputy knows, we have a number of drones. As far as I know, we have replaced them but I will double check for the Deputy.

With regard to acquiring our own air transport, we must consider the question of value for money. I take the Deputy's point that the humanitarian aid element could be included in this regard. The matter will be considered in the context of the new White Paper on defence which we will start preparing shortly. To date, we have not gone down this road because we have generally been advised that we would not have enough work for the equipment in question to justify the cost of acquisition and maintenance.

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