Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

Fianna Fáil will support this motion. While serving as Minister for Defence, both Deputy O'Dea and former Deputy Killeen invested much of their time in this initiative. I am sure Members will join me in extending sympathies to Deputy O'Dea on the death of his mother. The most intensive discussion during the relevant meeting of the Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality was on the use of the term, "battle groups". It is a highly unfortunate term given the role envisaged for these operations. The danger, with the passage of time, is forgetting the reason such functions were given to the European Union. It was because of its complete ineffectiveness at the time of the difficulties in the Balkans, which possibly was the time of the greatest shame for the European Union project. As time goes on, people forget that shame and forget the various proclamations to the effect this could never happen again. As the Minister has stated, this proposal is subject to the triple lock and, consequently, a decision on any engagement must come before the Cabinet and before this House again. Given this level of protection and given the circumstances within which these operations were envisaged, Fianna Fáil has no difficulty in supporting the motion.

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