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

I assure the House that, in terms of our overseas deployments, we always ensure that there are appropriate medical supports, medical facilities and nursing staff available to our serving personnel. This normally means that we embed our serving personnel with others. In Mali, we are embedded with the Germans. When I visited the EU training mission, it had a German medical facility that was responsible for looking after the medical requirements of the Irish serving personnel. That said, medical expertise and medical staff, including nursing staff, are an important component of a rounded and functioning defence forces. I hope that is what we can deliver following the review.

See this speech in context