Results 421-440 of 12,630 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Overseas Missions. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: There is no doubt the advice I have received will be debated in various fora throughout the country. A Cabinet sub-committee on European affairs is examining the terms of the draft EU constitution. The advice we have is that the triple lock is perfectly consistent with signing up to the section of the draft EU constitution containing the concept of common or mutual defence. Deputy Gormley...

Overseas Missions. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I am committed to the triple lock as it stands. On the proposals I will bring to Cabinet, as I said, we have set up a group which is divided into three subgroups to consider all the issues on participation in rapid reaction units. I will take the conclusions of those groups to Cabinet where we will discuss them. That is the position. People have asked if we should make a decision on this...

Overseas Missions. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: We are firmly in control of foreign policy. We devise our own foreign policy and do not look to China, America, Indonesia or elsewhere. My advice was that we did not need a UN mandate to deploy people on a voluntary basis overseas, as has always been done. For example, it was done in Mozambique and Honduras. I imagine the subgroups will report by the summer. The overall group met in December....

Overseas Missions. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I understand that but I do not agree. This is a debate we will have over a long period. Second, I reject Deputy Gormley's assertion that there is something lacking in the independence of Ireland's foreign policy. We are part of the EU and have certain responsibilities and obligations in this regard. However, by and large, Ireland controls its own foreign policy.

Overseas Missions. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: The answer to the first of Deputy Sherlock's questions is "yes". I am committed to the principle of not involving Irish troops in any military operation unless mandated by the UN. Regarding the triple-lock procedure, the present position will be maintained. I can only give the Deputy my word. I speak on behalf of the Government in assuring the Deputy that it is Government policy that the...

Army Intelligence Operations. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 90 and 1276 together. Both the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces perform complementary roles in the protection of the security of the State. There is ongoing and close liaison between the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces regarding internal security matters, including in the intelligence field. Both agencies gather and share information and...

Army Intelligence Operations. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: There is no justification for maintaining surveillance on people just because they happen to be political activists whose views do not coincide with the mainstream political opinions of the day. Military intelligence reports to me and I assure the House that nobody is under surveillance from military intelligence anyway simply because they happen to be involved in politics or democratic...

Army Intelligence Operations. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I am aware of the State papers to which the Deputy refers. However, I will not make any comment or second-guess the judgment of the people who decided to put anybody under surveillance at any time. That was done by people in military intelligence and was sanctioned by or at least known to those who were Ministers at the time. I answer for military intelligence now and take full responsibility...

Overseas Missions. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: The Government is strongly committed to providing whatever support it can within available resources and capabilities, including the provision of Defence Forces personnel, to the humanitarian relief operation in south-east Asia following the recent tsunami disaster. As soon as the scale of the disaster became clear, the Department of Foreign Affairs deployed a high level technical assessment...

Overseas Missions. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I sincerely hope we do not see anything even remotely resembling this incident again in the near future. Deputy Timmins's idea is a good one and I will take it up with my colleagues. The Department of Defence will examine this when considering the deployment of members of the Defence Forces Reserve abroad. Many of the same considerations will apply, such as security of employment and adequate...

Humanitarian Relief. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to take Questions Nos. 94, 117, 123, 136 and 1268 together. As I stated in response to an earlier question on this issue, the Government is strongly committed to providing whatever support it can within available resources and capabilities, including the provision of Defence Forces personnel, to the humanitarian relief operation in south-east Asia following the recent tsunami...

Humanitarian Relief. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: To the best of my knowledge, the funding has been increased at least twice. The Minister for Finance has advised us that there is still capacity to increase the emergency fund that is used in such circumstances. No decision has been made on this as yet but we will examine the question when the technical assessment group issues its final report to us.

Humanitarian Relief. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: The reply was contained in my response to Deputy Timmins. We are dealing with the sovereign governments of three countries in the region, not just a single unit. We have deployed the military personnel that were requested of us. It has been indicated to us by the team of the Minister for Foreign Affairs that a small number of further logistics experts of the same type may be required. If so,...

Fisheries Protection. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: The State's fishery protection capability, as provided by my Department, is delivered by the Naval Service and the Air Corps. The main day-to-day role of the Naval Service, which is equipped with a total of eight vessels comprising one helicopter-carrying vessel, five offshore patrol vessels and two coastal patrol vessels, is to provide a fishery protection service in accordance with the...

Fisheries Protection. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: In response to the Deputy's first question I am not aware of the detail of how navies operate in other countries. We have an obligation to protect Irish assets, namely, the exclusive Irish fishery area. I have outlined the measures we are taking and the resources we are deploying to do that. It is not true to say now, whatever might have been so in the past, that the greater percentage of...

Fisheries Protection. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I would have no difficulty raising this matter at European level but it is a national issue. In 1998 the Government instigated a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers on Naval Service output and how this could be increased. As a result, the naval output in patrolling activity has increased by approximately 35% in the last four years. Even last year it had increased over the previous year. Given...

Fisheries Protection. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: I suspected that Deputy Timmins might want to emphasise and highlight that point on the basis that the public is entitled to know. Obviously there are more Irish vessels to be found in the Irish patrol area and unfortunately statistics show that they are boarded proportionately more often than should be indicated by their numbers. That is an unfortunate statistical fact.

Search and Rescue Service. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: The Irish Coastguard has overall responsibility for the provision of maritime search and rescue services within the Irish search and rescue region. The Air Corps had been providing search and rescue services off the north-west coast but withdrew in October 2004 following a handover of this role to CHCI, a private operator, which also provides the service at the country's other search and...

Search and Rescue Service. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: The answer to the last part of the Deputy's question is "no". I have not had any such representations. I emphasise to the Deputy that in regard to emergencies on land, including those that require the air ambulance service, the Air Corps will continue to be available. In regard to what happened in the north west, there are four search and rescue bases in the country, namely, Dublin, Shannon,...

Search and Rescue Service. (26 Jan 2005)

Willie O'Dea: No, I did not mention its capacity.