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

I do not accept the accuracy of what the Deputy is saying. I travelled to Pakistan some years ago and interviewed people in refugee camps who had come from Afghanistan following the bombings that took place there in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. I remember very clearly the things I saw there and the people to whom I spoke. This is not a simple black and white issue. We are trying, in a very difficult and complex environment, to contribute to a functioning governance structure in a country that has had no such structure for many decades.

One of the ways in which we can do that is by training security forces there to deal with things they are likely to have to deal with in the coming months and years. We are good at post-conflict management and resolution and we are good at training. It is something we are already doing in Mali and other parts of the world. We are making a small contribution towards a significant international effort to help the Government in Afghanistan, a Government I acknowledge is not perfect, to run its own affairs into the future. It is a worthy objective.

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