John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

I accept that but we have a responsibility to take our troops out of that theatre for a two week period. We should not impose huge financial costs on them in order to avail of that facility. Given the uniqueness of the situation, will the Minister look at that positively? It is a sincere request. It would constitute a once-off basis for this mission, as I am not trying to create a precedent.

As a former member of the Defence Forces, I am acutely aware not only of the commitment made by our troops, but of the huge support from wives and families. In recent years, support for the families of troops overseas has improved dramatically. The big breakthrough for us in 1988 was a visit from Mick Dunne to Lebanon. Talking to him privately one night, we succeeded in having the All-Ireland football and hurling finals broadcast to us by telephone link. It created a great atmosphere among the troops. The western command flew red and green flags on their Land Rovers while the southern command flew red and white flags because Cork was playing Mayo. Since the Israelis used a mechanism of colour coded flags on the back of their vehicles to signal each other, there was consternation when they saw these new colours flying on our jeeps. They did not know what was going on.