Results 13,281-13,300 of 19,162 for speaker:Alan Shatter

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Reserve Issues (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: There was a consultative process by my officials with members of the Reserve Defence Force following the publication of the value for money report. The Permanent Defence Force, PDF, has been engaged with them also in the context of implementing the changes. I have met with members of the reserve previously. I am always happy to meet with members of the reserve and I had the opportunity...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: On 25 April 2013, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2100 establishing a peacekeeping force in the west African nation of Mali. Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council established the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, to be known as MINUSMA, for an initial period of 12 months. The new mission...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: I wish I lived in the simplistic world the Deputy inhabits in dealing with these issues. Of course, it is important there are not food difficulties and that those that exist are addressed. It is also important that children in difficulty have their problems addressed. UNICEF is part of the same organisation involved, the United Nations. As the Deputy may be aware, the problems - despite...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: Is the Deputy seriously saying that all of that should have been ignored or should continue to be ignored and that those groups should have been allowed to take over the entire Malian State and perpetrate murder, persecution and rape throughout that state? It was the intervention of the French and African forces that stopped that.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: What is being done now, which is important, is that the EUTM group is not merely providing military training, but is providing training in human rights issues, in conflict resolution and in civilian protection issues. This is an important element of what needs to be done to facilitate the Malian State's return to some level of normality when the promised elections are held next July.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: First, there are still difficulties in Afghanistan. The Deputy is wrong about the situation in Afghanistan because there are substantial improvements in that country compared to ten years ago. However, the Deputy chooses to ignore them.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: Is the Deputy suggesting that where there is murder, mutilation and rape-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: -----and where women are being violated and limbs are being cut off, the world should turn its back and do nothing?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: Is that what the Deputy is suggesting?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: I do not agree with that point of view.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Expenditure (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: As provided for in the Revised Estimates Volume for 2013, the gross provision for the Defence Votes in 2013 is €895 million. This figure is made up of €680 million for the Defence Vote and €215 million for the Army pensions Vote. The gross provision for 2013 shows an overall reduction of €7 million on the 2012 gross provision of €902 million and is mainly...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Expenditure (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: I disagree entirely with what the Deputy has to say with regard to my defending of the position of members of the Defence Forces. If the Deputy's party had continued in government, I would not have been in a position to secure an agreement from the Government that the strength of the Defence Forces should be maintained at 9,500. If I had not secured the additional funding necessary from the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Expenditure (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: In the context of any savings that had to be effected, I said that in real financial terms they were not large as they affected any individual, but the approach was that the new financial arrangements would have a greater impact on those who were better paid than on those who were lesser paid. I do not know if the Deputy is suggesting that those who are paid less should have been hit to a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: On 20 December 2001, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1386 under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, authorising the establishment of the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, in Afghanistan. On 9 October 2012, the UN Security Council extended ISAF’s mandate for a further year until October 2013. Ireland has participated in the NATO–led, UN-mandated...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: We have lost no respect as an international peacekeeper.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: As I meet colleagues inside and outside the European Union as Minister for Defence, I find there is enormous respect for the role played by this country. There is enormous respect for the reality, as well as for the perception that we have no agenda of any description, other than trying to assist in bringing about peace and stability in various troubled regions of the world. That is what...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: I have absolutely no idea why the Deputy is shouting and getting so exercised nor can I figure what relevance his rather unnecessary and odd reference to Palestinian children has to this issue, unless the Deputy has something else going through his mind. Let me inform the Deputy that in the context of that issue, I have been a great deal more engaged than he. I have been engaged in talking...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Overseas Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: It is not a coincidence that in the context of the question about Afghanistan he diverted to other issues.

Other Questions: Defence Forces UN Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: I propose to answer Questions Nos. 77, 81, 83, 87 and 97 together. I addressed the question of possible Defence Forces' participation in the newly established United Nations' multidimensional integrated stabilisation mission in Mali in my reply to a priority question. On 17 January 2013, the Council of the European Union established the EU training mission, EUTM Mali, which was formally...

Other Questions: Defence Forces UN Missions (7 May 2013)

Alan Shatter: Like Deputy Finian McGrath, Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl gives a little too much credence to the nonsense he reads in Phoenix. There has been no decision about numbers of troops. I dealt with this issue at some length. There is a United Nations proposal for a mission. As I indicated in my earlier reply, we are considering technical areas in which we can provide personnel. The...