Seanad debates

Wednesday, 20 October 2021

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Gerard CraughwellGerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We saw how Ireland's ability to train with other armies around the world benefited us recently in Kabul. When our people went on the ground out there, they knew people on the ground there and were able to interact with them, and that is really important. I agree with certain restrictions on how troops might be used overseas, but Kabul is an example of how quickly things can change and a Minister and a government can find themselves in a crisis situation in which they have to get people on the ground quickly in a humanitarian effort to get people back home as quickly as possible. I am one of the people who was screaming during the Kabul issue to get troops out there. I would be one of the people screaming that we should have heavy lift aircraft to bring people back from wherever in the world a crisis hits. In the early stages of Covid-19, for example, we had people dispersed around the world. I would want a Minister to be in a position to make a decision to send aircraft, to bring people home and to send troops out to bring people home in such situations. I am therefore anxious we do not use something as crude as legislation to tie hands that we may regret deeply tying in a few years' time or a few months' time. We live in a very strange world where things change very rapidly.

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