Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Yes, 1,500 each. One might be deployed to Africa and the other to Asia but they will be deployed simultaneously should that be necessary.

I wish to clarify another point on which there appears to be some confusion. The United Nations does not decide to deploy a battle group. The United Nations will ask the EU to intervene and the method of intervention by the EU, as a regional agency, will depend on what the EU decides. It might decide, for example, to send a traditional type of peace enforcement mission or a battle group, depending on the circumstances.

Senator Hayes also mentioned the necessity of rapid deployment in a humanitarian crisis. In section 3(1)(f) we are providing for troops to be deployed by the Government on humanitarian missions in the absence of a UN resolution. In other words, the resolution will not be necessary to deploy troops. Until now, the Government did not have the power to deploy troops on humanitarian missions. There will be no United Nations resolution because there is no threat to international peace and security. Until now, troops could volunteer and they would be seconded to an NGO and go in as part of an NGO operation. We are now giving ourselves the power to deploy troops if necessary in a humanitarian situation but there will not be a UN resolution. That will not arise.

Regarding Senator Minihan's question about Macedonia, we did not have any troops there that had to be withdrawn. My advice is that there was a United Nations mission in Macedonia, which was vetoed by the Security Council and had to be discontinued. Subsequent to that, an EU mission was sent there by virtue of a UN Security Council resolution but I do not believe we were participants in either.