Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Section 4(2), which the Senator proposes to delete, provides for a saver in respect of personnel who enlisted before the enactment of the Defence (Amendment) Act 1993. The effect of the amendment would be to delete this saver. As stated, the 1993 Act extended the involvement of the Defence Forces in UN-mandated peace support operations to include peace enforcement missions. I refer to chapter 7 missions. At the time, the view taken was that personnel who had enlisted before the enactment of that Act would not have envisaged service on such missions as part of their terms of enlistment and that consequently, it should not be made mandatory for them. With the repeal of the 1993 Act, the section is being re-enacted in the present Bill. As it would be a breach of faith to use the legislation under discussion to remove the saver in respect of the pre-1993 personnel, I cannot accept the amendment.

To put it in simpler language, in 1993 the type of peacekeeping mission in which Irish troops could engage changed fundamentally. Chapter 7, or peace enforcement missions were added to the pre-existing simple peacekeeping missions. The Government's view at the time was that people who had enlisted before 1993, when chapter 7 missions became a feature of foreign peacekeeping operations, had not done so on that basis. They had enlisted on the basis that when the Defence Forces went overseas, they could only carry out ordinary, non-chapter 7 peacekeeping missions. Hence, it was considered to be fair and proper to exempt such personnel from the requirements of going on chapter 7 missions.

There are some exceptions in this regard. First, a police-type mission, which is not regarded as being dangerous, is all right. The second exception concerns someone who enlisted before 1993 and who signs up for a chapter 7 mission. This scenario is also all right. However, the Department did not consider it to be right and proper to force such people to engage in such missions because at the time they joined the Army, they did not exist.