Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

There is a second point. Under the Defence (Amendment)(No. 2) Act 1960, the deployment of troops overseas requires only the consent of Dáil Éireann. The deployment of troops would be regarded as a more serious matter than simply getting involved in a particular EDA project and the same argument applies in this case. Even before the amendment was acceptable in any case and even without the constitutional argument, we would have to amend the Defence (Amendment) Act 1960 first. Otherwise, the situation would be totally illogical.