Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We should not be offering up our troops for deployment in counter-terrorism operations under the guise of conflict management. There was a coup in the country. It is a high risk mission which has involved over 200 fatalities to date. As it is considered to be one of the United Nations' most dangerous missions, we need to talk about it in the House. Large-scale deployments such as this, with a full combat role, should not be allowed to become the norm. It is a form of conflict management by the United Nations. We should be leading the opposition to it, rather than supporting it. I also have concerns about the intelligence roles played by the troops. Intelligence is gathered with others, but we have no control over how it is used. Again, this might have negative consequences.

As a malaria zone, the mission in Mali poses a significant risk to Irish troops. Will the Minister of State confirm whether soldiers serving there are taking Lariam? I do not need to remind him about the motion passed by the Dáil on the issue. Are our troops in Mali taking Lariam?

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