Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ministerial discretion is not a bad thing. I regularly appear before this House and the Dáil to answer questions and to be held to account, and I am held to account in many ways. That is part of being a Minister, and sometimes ministerial discretion is a good thing in terms of having the flexibility to use judgement and to make an intervention quickly that could be life-saving.

We did that recently, for example, with regard to Kabul Airport. I did not come to the Oireachtas for that but I was certainly answerable to it after I made the decision. I am not saying that is relevant to the Senator’s particular amendment but I am saying it is relevant to the comment around ministerial discretion. Sometimes Ministers need to be empowered to make decisions and, of course, they need to be fully answerable for those decisions. For me, however, this is an area where if there is a delegation from me to a force commander relating to Irish Defence Forces personnel who are part of a combined mission to ensure it runs efficiently and safely for our personnel and to get the outcomes it needs, that is the kind of decision a Minister for Defence needs to make on the advice of his Department and of the Defence Forces.

There is no way I would ever be signing delegations the Defence Forces or the Department were recommending against. I understand the issue the Senator is raising and it is a legitimate issue for us to debate, but I also think it is important the political system allows a Minister to do his or her job in making appropriate interventions. There then needs to be, as there is, a very robust process of accountability as to the basis for those decisions, whether they were right or wrong, and so on. That is ultimately at the core of this here. If we try to legislate to such an extent that we tie the Minister’s hands on when and where he or she could send Defence Forces personnel, whether it is an expected or planned mission or whether it is a short-term humanitarian response or rescue mission that involves multiple other forces, these are things we must be able to make decisions on quickly as opposed to having potentially to go back to the Oireachtas. What if it happens over the summer months, for example?

I am all about accountability for these decisions but I am also about allowing a Minister, and this is not about me as Minister but whoever is the Minister for Defence in the future, to make decisions on the advice of his or her Department, the Defence Forces and the Chief of Staff, to make appropriate interventions, and to use the skill sets and experience we have in an international setting. To confine that too much means potentially our hands could be tied by legislation when we should actually have Defence Forces personnel on their way to a part of the world that desperately needs them.

That is the only motivation I have here. This is a useful debate to have, however, and the Senator's amendments have got me thinking about it and I have had a conversation with our team in the Department about it. I believe this is a case for ministerial discretion as opposed to ministerial discretion being the problem.