Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I am afraid that is not good enough. First, the United Nations' supposed cover for the operation masks the fact that the exercise was a NATO-led one. The UN Security Council resolution justified the decision, but the United Nations broke its own rules by approving the occupation by the US-led coalition and its activities.

The Minister said he wants Irish troops to be part of the rebuilding of Afghanistan. Let us look at what has happened in that country. The intervention was supposedly to overthrow al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but they are now stronger than ever. In fact, many of their members have now defected to ISIS. Subsequent to that, we were told the purpose of the intervention was to eradicate poppy growing and even, ridiculously, to deliver women's rights. We have since had a bumper crop of poppies, and women's rights are further back than they were in the 1980s. More than $100 billion has been spent in the area, which is one of the poorest, most backward, most corruption-ridden and most dangerous places to live. Therefore, the mission of which we were a part has not been much of a success.

Does the Minister not agree that it has been well documented and established that hundreds of prisoners were imprisoned under extreme conditions by US-led forces in Afghanistan at the same time as Irish troops were present in Kabul? Many of the prisoners were tortured and some of them died as a result. Does that not make us complicit in that activity? Is it not the case that by leaving our troops there when many other foreign troops have been withdrawn, the Minister is making them much more vulnerable to attack and insecure in their current positions?

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