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

As I said, I am not making decisions on the basis of legal advice. My only interest is medical advice. We screen people and make choices as to which antimalarial drug we prescribe on the basis of where people are going and how long they are going to be staying. That is a very different profile, by the way, to the US, which does not really have a peacekeeping role, as such, for its defence forces in the way that we do. On the continent of Africa, certainly, the US does not have a significant presence from a peacekeeping point of view.

I had a long conversation about this when I was in Mali over the St. Patrick's Day period, when I spoke to some German colleagues about their views on Lariam. It is not that we are not thinking about it; we are and I have an open mind on it. I do not want to make decisions because of statements people have made, unless there is a medical reason which shows that our personnel are safer using an alternative to Lariam, as opposed to using Lariam which has been very effective in certain circumstances. I will have no problem standing up here and changing my view on this on the basis of medical advice. That is the advice of which we will take note.

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