Results 10,821-10,840 of 12,637 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: The provision the amendment addresses is the dispatch of personnel to serve in secondments in international organisations. The amendment proposes to add the term "battle groups" to the section, namely "the European Union or any institution or body of the European Union". A battle group is not a body or an institution of the European Union and as such, the amendment makes no sense. Personnel...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: That is what he said.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I accept that.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Amendment No. 2 would leave the definition of international United Nations force the same as it is currently in the 1993 Act. It would completely subvert the purpose of the definition in this Bill which is designed to provide for the full range of terminology used by the United Nations Security Council. Amendment No. 3 would simply add the word "authorised" to the existing definition of...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I cannot do so without the permission of the Attorney General, as Deputy Costello knows. The 1960 Defence Act stated that Ireland is entitled to send troops overseas on a mission "established" by the United Nations. In recent years the United Nations has farmed out the organisation of some of these missions to regional bodies such as the EU, the African Union etc. The question arose when the...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: We have consulted our mission to the UN in New York and taken advice from them. We are trying to have an all-embracing definition so that if the United Nations words a resolution in a certain way, our defence legislation corresponds with it. If the mission is desirable we should not be prevented by a technicality from the definition in the defence legislation not being exhaustive enough to...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Deputy Gormley may refer to terms such as "authorised", "endorsed", "supported", "approved" and "otherwise sanctioned", but under this legislation there can be no deployment whatever of Irish troops on peacekeeping missions unless there is a specific resolution of the United Nations which will give rise to that. The Deputy mentioned Iraq. The argument put forward by the US Government, as I...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I used the term "usually". That is what I said last Sunday and I am saying the same now.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I do not propose to confine myself that way.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: They will not be pre-deployed into a theatre of war. Surely the Deputy can understand that and agree with it.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: There are two issues here. We should forget about prior deployment for the moment. I will give an example of a normal situation where people deploy from their own country into a battle group that has already been sanctioned to go. That case is straightforward. The battle group will be waiting for a United Nations resolution and will decide to get together, either in the framework nation or...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Yes. That will be two countries that will have a legal requirement. The Norwegians do not have a difficulty with it and I do not see why we should either.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: There are other situations where a country will not be able to deploy, not just because it is a political imperative. Some countries have baggage such as a colonial past and will not want to send soldiers into a particular region. That is an imperative which does not apply to us and we should not always think of ourselves as the non-participant. As that is the reality in multinational battle...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: In answer to Deputy Costello, the people negotiating the composition and operation in practice of the battle groups are examining all those issues at present. Obviously, there will always be a lead-up time. Something will be happening which will require the United Nations to approach the EU for assistance. The EU can decide in what form it will provide that assistance, whether by organising a...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: If the Dáil is not sitting, we must recall the Dáil because it is one of the three pieces of the triple lock and, obviously, nothing can be done without a Dáil motion. The people putting the multinational battle groups together are considering all those issues and they are issues which must be considered in detail. Deputy Gormley asked the position where troops assemble in a neighbouring...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I am sure they will not only be attacking the Irish troops.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I am sure the other countries will also take measures to ensure the safety of their troops.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: It is even more unrealistic to conjure up all these images.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: How many scenarios will there be? When one gets the assembly together waiting for the United Nations resolution and in that short space of time they happen to be somewhere where they happen to be attacked——

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2006 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages. (4 Jul 2006)

Willie O'Dea: We are not going into the war zone.