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

I spoke to my counterpart in Italy at the last Council of Ministers meeting, which was before Christmas - in December, I believe, although I stand to be corrected. I asked her very directly about this. We made a decision after the rotation of LE Samuel Beckettthat we would take a break, assess the effectiveness of the mission and determine how we could improve. That was the prudent approach because it was the first time we had ever been involved in such a mission. We went way beyond what we believed we would have to do when we made the commitment in May. I said we should take a break and assess the complexity of what we had been doing so that if we went back, we could do better. The advice was that this was a good time to take a break because the numbers attempting to cross the Mediterranean are certainly lower now than in the spring or summer. That has proven to be the case although it has not stopped the tragedy in terms of the number of people drowning, although many of the drownings have taken place off Greek Islands as opposed to between Libya and Italy. The direct answer to the Deputy's question is that I believe Italy would welcome an Irish vessel to work in partnership with it again. There was no direct request for that but there was certainly an indication that the Italian authorities would like to see that happen and would appreciate it. We intend to follow through on that, as I said.

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