Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The second question is somewhat specialised. Irish troops will participate in the Nordic battle group later this year when they go out to a location in Sweden in September. In regard to the lead-in period one would envisage, one of the surprising elements if one looks back historically at Ireland's involvement in UN missions is that on virtually no occasion, when a mission ended, could one have foreseen the next mission. Nobody would have realistically predicted that Chad, Liberia or Eritrea would be Ireland's next engagement, although Lebanon was somewhat predictable. Much attention is directed towards UNIFIL, partly because of our particularly positive engagement in Lebanon historically and partly because of the ongoing need there. However, at this point, we have not been formally invited to participate in a particular mission and we have some work to do before we are ready to engage in any such mission.

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