Results 38,421-38,440 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (12 Jul 2022)

Simon Coveney: Close protection teams comprising members of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) are assigned to accompany members of Government, where warranted, on visits to overseas missions in which Defence Forces personnel are deployed. I can confirm that members of the ARW accompanied and provided close protection to the Taoiseach and/or Ministers on visits outside of the State in 2021 and to date in 2022 on...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Chair and members. I am pleased to report to the committee on the participation of the Irish Defence Forces in United Nations missions in 2020 and 2021. These reports were laid before the Dáil on 21 June 2021 and on 30 March 2022, respectively. The following motion were placed on the Order Paper for Dáil Éireann and have been referred to this committee. The...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: No. The UN mission in Mali is due to end in September. The training mission is not due to end.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: There are two missions in Mali. There is the UN mission-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: -----involving the Ranger wing and two support staff. There is also the EU training mission. We are ending our involvement in the UN mission in September.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: There were many questions in that contribution.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: I suspect the reply to some of Deputy Brady's questions may inform some of the other questions. I thank the Deputy for paying tribute to the Defence Forces, whose members do an extraordinary job, particularly overseas. I have been to UNIFIL five or six times now and every time I am impressed by the relationship it has with local communities and how trusted those personnel are with local...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: No, we did not.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: It is just like the situation where we did not need to go through a triple lock process to send a ship to the Mediterranean because it was not a UN mission. It was a bilateral support mission with the Italians that was based on a humanitarian cause that needed and benefited from an Irish intervention and that pulled 16,000 people out of the sea to save their lives. I hope the Deputy is not...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: No, the training-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: Troops, as is always the case in terms of the military, will follow orders. Our job in Mali has been to train troops predominantly to try to de-mine certain areas and to try to protect themselves and the civilians they are there to try to protect from some pretty unsavoury forces across the Sahel and Mali. That is what they have been there for. I would not like the kind of slur that the...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: To say that our troops actively trained the people responsible for the coup, I think, is something that maybe Sinn Féin should consider.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: Deputy Brady had his say.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: The point I am making is that we have been training troops for all of the right reasons. The people who are responsible for the coup are at a different level entirely and the Deputy should not be making the connection between the two, given the accusation that comes from that. In regard to the continuing presence, we are likely to see some changes to that EU training mission but, for now,...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: Yes, but that is a challenge that is way outside of Ireland's control.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: Regarding the triple lock, we can control what we want to control when it comes to Irish troops, where they go, how long they stay there and what mandate they operate under. Controlling that is our job as the Government, the Oireachtas and so on. I am not happy that Ireland has to rely on the approval of some of the P5 member states for mandates for future peacekeeping missions, given the...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: No. What I am saying is that there are other mechanisms that we could use to reassure Irish people that we are sending troops on missions that are consistent with the objectives of the UN, those being, peace support and peacekeeping. Perhaps we can have that debate in the autumn; we are not going to have it now. I am just signalling that there are issues that we have to be mature enough to...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: I thank the Deputy for her questions. The changing nature of peacekeeping is almost self-evident. I will give a good example. The previous time we were on the Security Council was in 2001 when 9-11 tragically happened. There has also been a great deal of tragedy this time, be it Afghanistan, Covid, Ukraine or many other conflicts. I understand that, in 2001, the Security Council was...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: There is a role for the Defence Forces in the National Cyber Security Centre in terms of secondments, etc. but it is primarily the responsibility of the Minister for-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Reports on Service by the Defence Forces with the UN and Permanent Structured Cooperation Projects: Motions (30 Jun 2022)

Simon Coveney: Yes, the Minister for Transport or rather, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications. It is the same person. Let us wait and see how that evolves. Certainly, the Government is conscious of the need to continue to build capacity in terms of cybersecurity generally. Within the Defence Forces, we have to make sure that our own systems are as bulletproof as they can be from...