Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

We have seven troops currently participating in the United Nations-mandated, NATO-led mission, ISAF. They are based in Kabul in a non-combatant role. There are no plans to increase the level of our contribution at present. Our presence in Chad is our major input, with more than 400 troops deployed, a significant deployment that means we do not have the capacity to send any more troops to Afghanistan.

Increasingly we have been looking at ways of giving support through Irish Aid or in partnership with other donors to see if we can help on the agricultural and food sides, where we have some expertise. We are examining this area to see if the aid we already give can be better targeted at providing alternative forms of agriculture in Afghanistan and helping rural development.

We recently received a delegation of Afghan parliamentarians who came to Ireland to have a look at our peace process and model of conflict resolution.

Deputy Creighton's point is valid, Afghanistan is critical on a global basis. It is important that we work to see can we help the country to emerge as a stable entity for a range of reasons, not least the regional instability that it can and does create. There is clearly an impact on Pakistan and the wider region. That is why the European Union, of late, has begun to look at the issue from a regional and not just a country by country perspective. There has been renewed focus on Pakistan in tandem with the consideration of Afghanistan.

In terms of the EU costings Deputy Costello looked for, since 2002 the European Commission has contributed more than €1.4 billion to Afghanistan. EC aid is being used for humanitarian purposes as well as to support priority reconstruction and development efforts included in key policy documents with the Afghan Government, such as a national development framework, the interim Afghan national development strategy and, more recently, the Afghan national development strategy. At the 2006 London conference, the EC together with other development partners committed themselves to the Afghanistan Compact. This was a political agreement between development partners and the government to work together towards achieving results and impact on clear targets set for the next five years. That is a very substantial commitment to Afghanistan by the European Union.

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