Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, have serious reservations about any of our Army personnel being deployed in Mali. Time will prove that we might not be proud of our involvement in the country. I would be wary because as the Minister of State said, the current group in charge, which came to power by a military coup, has not behaved very well, as pointed out by the other Deputies. The leader of that group, who was trained in human rights in the United States, recently arrested the editor of a Malian newspaper for criticising the amount of money he was getting.

There are question marks over our support for the French on this mission. The French would not be going into this country if there was not some material gain for them. We all know that uranium is in great supply in Mali. France has done very well from exploiting the region, and it would be keen to keep those channels open. This is not what we should be doing.

The Minister said that democracy will be restored in the summer but restored to what? There was no democracy before the coup when the Tuaregs in the north were being persecuted. I would be surprised if we are impressed with the outcome of the elections in the summer.

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