Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am annoyed because the Minister in his initial response to my question as to why Question No. 9 had not been grouped with these questions gave the rather disingenuous response that it was about battle groups when it also relates to military missions to Africa. The Minister knew precisely to what I was referring. The Minister is not being honest in terms of the manner in which he is dealing with the points being raised.

The point being made is that this is not some sort of good guy-bad guy conflict in respect of which we should be training the military of the Malian State because they are the good guys in this. Atrocities against the Tuareg people have substantially escalated - I accept there have been atrocities on all sides - since the French military intervention commenced. It is worsening the situation and will drive ordinary Malians into the hands of the more obscurantist elements. This is not simply an issue of good guy-bad guy. This is a nasty civil war, in respect of which the French have their own agenda. We should not be involved in the scramble by imperial powers in African countries because the losers will be the ordinary people of Mali and Africa generally.

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