Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and thank him and his officials for introducing the Bill in this House in the first instance. He has received great support within the Defence Forces since his appointment and has been perceived as very approachable by the representative organisations.

I declare an interest because I am nominated by the Irish Conference of Professional and Service Associations. Two groups that come under its remit are RACO and PDFORRA and I must bear in mind their views on this issue. The Minister has probably had detailed discussions with them on the Bill.

The international standing of the Defence Forces, particularly in respect of humanitarian aid and security provision in very difficult areas, is second to none. The force has sacrificed many lives in the course of its peacekeeping duties and we should be very proud of its achievement. I regret very much that there has been loss of life but the fact is that the personnel who died sacrificed their lives in the interest of this country and those they were trying to assist in a peacemaking capacity. I have met troops who were serving in other capacities, in Bosnia-Herzegovina and elsewhere, as part of missions under OSCE and on secondment duties in respect of monitoring elections. Their training and ability is as good as, if not better than, that of any other troops in the world.

The Bill is enabling legislation. The Attorney General raised certain matters with the Minister and perhaps the Minister will clarify the position on retrospection. The Bill cannot be retrospective or endorse any events that will have taken place prior to its enactment in early July. There are approximately 10,500 troops in the Defence Forces at present. Does the Minister envisage that this Bill will give rise to his making a request to the Government for additional troops to ensure a larger presence on the international stage, particularly in regard to humanitarian issues? We should have faster deployment to certain regions, including northern Kenya, for instance, where there is a serious drought.

The Cathaoirleach will forgive me for referring to Fr. Patrick Devine of the Society of African Missions, who is in the Visitors Gallery. He and his colleagues are doing tremendous work.