Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it is appropriate for me to go into the detail of decisions taken by the force commander and the reasons behind those decisions. General Singha, the force commander, who is an Indian officer, has had to make very difficult judgments over the past number of weeks. His primary focus has been the safety of UN troops in the face of some very difficult situations which he has had to manage. In my view and in that of Irish officers who are there, he has made the right decisions. That is all I will say on that.

In terms of the involvement of Israeli troops in supporting, rescuing or coming to the aid of Irish troops, there was a misleading report in the Irish media that somehow Irish troops were rescued by Israeli forces. That is simply not true and I am glad to confirm that. The Irish forces' engagement here, which has got some accurate coverage, was that they were asked by General Singha to go in and, effectively, evacuate Filipino troops who were under huge pressure and were surrounded by rebel forces. They did that in a very professional way. They took some fire and returned some fire and they successfully helped their colleagues to get out of a very difficult situation.

Another UN post was surrounded, which had a different outcome, but it was also a solution that resulted in protection of the lives of peacekeepers. However, there was no incident in which Israeli troops had to rescue Irish troops.

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