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

The politics of it are that it is absolutely the right thing to do. The politics of it is that I made a decision that, instead of focusing our resources on fisheries protection, which is what we would normally be doing, we have diverted those resources, with a consequential loss in sea hours. I am not happy about that but I strongly defend the decision to do what we did, which was to prioritise resources to save lives.

In the White Paper, and in answering questions on the White Paper, I said that reservists generally, whether in the Army or the Naval Service, may well have a role to play overseas in the future, but it would be in specialist roles such as medical assistance, counselling and support services in humanitarian missions like the one in the Mediterranean. This has been a very demanding mission for the Naval Service. Our best and most experienced crews have been sent and they have done a phenomenal job. We will have to wait and see whether we include reservists in that mission should it continue into next year, which I think is likely. The most important thing is that the ships do an effective job and the crew are safe.

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