Results 21,401-21,420 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I am not saying "ah sure" anything. I am saying that the working group looked at the issue and came back with the recommendation that on balance we should continue using Lariam. I have asked the group to look at the issue again. That work only started in September and the group will report before the end of the year. This is not a blasé attitude, as the Deputy is suggesting, but...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: Regardless of what I say here, the Deputy will not be satisfied. An ongoing review is taking place which takes into account the experience of Irish troops. That is the point of it. It aims to achieve results that ensure our troops do not get malaria and to assess what side effects there have been for our troops and for people like Mark. I will act, but on the basis of medical advice, as...

Other Questions: Defence Forces Recruitment (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I am glad to say we are recruiting strongly, because recruitment is needed. The Government is committed to maintaining the stabilised strength of the Permanent Defence Force at 9,500 personnel, comprising 7,520 Army, 886 Air Corps and 1,094 Naval Service personnel, as stated in the 2015 White Paper on Defence. I am advised by the military authorities that the strength of the Permanent...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Naval Service Strength (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: First, I concede that we have had challenges in the Naval Service in the past two years on a number of levels. We have had to prioritise where our ships are. We have had ships in the Mediterranean since May and we had some problems with a delay in the delivery of the LE James Joyce. We also had issues with maintenance, all of which contributed to limited resource availability for the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Naval Service Strength (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I am a little surprised that people are going to the Deputy with this information when, if I had the information, we could fix it. I will find out if this is the case, but I have not been told of any problem with three out of the four naval launches. The real issue is getting reservists onto ships for patrol hours offshore to give them experience so that, if and when they are needed, they...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Naval Service Strength (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I am not quite sure what the Deputy is getting at when he says we could talk about the politics of what we are doing in the Mediterranean.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Naval Service Strength (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: The politics of it are that it is absolutely the right thing to do. The politics of it is that I made a decision that, instead of focusing our resources on fisheries protection, which is what we would normally be doing, we have diverted those resources, with a consequential loss in sea hours. I am not happy about that but I strongly defend the decision to do what we did, which was to...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I totally agree with the Deputy on this. This is about getting the best medical advice, and I also agree with Deputy Crowe. The reason I am a little defensive is that it is not an easy decision. There are some problems with Lariam for some people. I have used Lariam and did not have any side effects, but I am lucky, as other people have experienced side effects. It is about balancing the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: That has nothing to do with it.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: If there are court cases, then of course they will go to court.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: What the Deputy is trying to do is-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: What the Deputy is not referring to is the fact that 1 million people a year die of malaria. He is not referring to the fact that we send our troops into regions that have serious malaria issues. I need to protect them, to make sure they are not in those figures of people who die from malaria each year. There is a balance to be achieved here to make sure that when we make decisions to send...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: If there are court cases in Ireland we will deal with them. The only priority for me is making sure that when we make the serious decision to send troops abroad on peacekeeping missions, they are protected with the best medication we can give them for any diseases they may encounter in those areas.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: That is the only issue and if that means moving away from Lariam because there is a better drug that can get better results, we will do that but it will be on medical advice, not on political point scoring.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Medicinal Products (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: We will come to it in a while.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Shannon Airport Facilities (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: This is an issue we debate regularly in this House and that is fine. In accordance with the Air Navigation (Foreign Military Aircraft) Order 1952, primary responsibility for the regulation of activity by foreign military aircraft in Ireland rests with my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Pursuant to this legislation, permission is required for foreign military aircraft...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Shannon Airport Facilities (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: I need to repeat again that I am not the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Deputy should address the policy questions on the use of Shannon Airport to him. The job of the Minister for Defence, the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces is to assist An Garda Síochána when it asks for help. That is what we do in respect of Shannon. It is unfortunate that there is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Shannon Airport Facilities (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: Of course I have views and the bombing at Kunduz was a tragedy that should not have happened, but I am Minister for Defence and the role of the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces in Shannon Airport is very clear, just as the role of the Department of Justice and Equality on security issues is clear. Within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the policy decisions are clear....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Properties (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: Let me be clear. We have sold to the Department of Education and Skills an eight acre site which the Department made available and which, as Deputy Ó Fearghaíl states, has been the site for the building of a fantastic new school. We also intended to transfer the rest of the site to Kildare County Council. We thought that was what the community wanted and that is what Kildare...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Properties (8 Oct 2015)

Simon Coveney: No.