Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the defence motion, out of respect to the Business Committee, at which there is good co-operation, I stated I would take back the concerns raised by members. I arranged a meeting with the Chief of Staff, Secretary General and Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Deputy Kehoe, to discuss the issues raised by Deputies Brendan Ryan and Clare Daly. The reason for the urgency in dealing with this issue is that it involves a time-limited commitment. The Government has made a commitment to implement the deployment before the end of the year. As Operation Sophia only extends as far as December, the triple lock mechanism will have to be used again if it is to be extended. The Government's commitment in this regard is only until the end of December. A request was made to delay a decision in the matter until September. If the motion is passed today, which is the prerogative of the Dáil, it will take up to two months to do the preparatory work required. If we wait until mid-September to vote on the motion, two months of preparatory work will still be required. Given that the deployment will only last until the end of December, the commitment is time limited.

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