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

If one were to follow through on the logic of the Deputy's argument, the international community would simply pull out of Afghanistan. In my view, if that were to happen, the country would implode and would be taken over once again by tribal leaders, some of them fundamentalist in their thinking, and that is not what the international community would like to see happen. Therefore, we are doing what we can, in a new environment, to try to support the maintenance of stability and the building of some kind of normalisation in a country that has not seen that for very many years.

I draw the Deputy's attention to our partners, including many other neutral countries such as Austria and Sweden. Our European partners include Finland, Germany, Italy and Montenegro, and our other partner countries include New Zealand, Australia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Macedonia. This is a collective effort, with approximately 12,000 personnel staying on as part of the follow-on mission, ISAF, which previously had many more personnel. With regard to Ireland's role, what we bring to those efforts in terms of training and knowledge will be a positive contribution to what is, essentially, a peace and stability mission.

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