Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am advised by the military authorities that they are satisfied that existing Army training techniques and equipment are up-to-date in all respects. Personnel are trained and provided with all the necessary skills to the standards required to ensure that they can carry out all day-to-day roles assigned to them. This is clearly evidenced by the roles engaged in by the Defence Forces not only domestically but internationally. For example, I have visited the Middle East, where we have members of the Defence Forces in southern Lebanon. We have a joint Irish-Finnish contingent. Our Defence Forces, when they were a sole contingent out there, were interacting with other contingents as opposed to being a joint contingent. It is clear that the resources, weapons, protective resources and equipment available to them are as good as, and in some cases better than, the equipment being utilised by other defence forces. For example, the deployment of our Defence Forces was requested in the Golan Heights following the announcement by the Austrian contingent that it would withdraw. I insisted that specific and particular resources be available to provide force protection to members of the Defence Forces. That was agreed and those resources were substantially superior to the resources available to the other contingents engaged on the Golan Heights at the time.

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