Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Higgins for her remarks. It is important to note that section 2 of the Bill simply provides for the current de facto position and will ensure the continued efficient and effective operation of the mission to which the contingent is being deployed. It allows the force commander to direct the activities of the Irish contingent, within certain limitations prescribed by the Minister, to undertake the mandated tasks required for the effective operation of that force. The Bill does not extend in any way the purposes which are clearly specified in section 3 of the Defence (Amendment) Act. This legislation maintains the same approach that has applied on an administrative basis for many years in terms of what has been a delegation process, which was not written into legislation. That is now being regularised through this Bill. The Bill is not putting anything new in place. Furthermore, the legislation does not alter the current legislative framework relating to the triple lock and any requirements in terms of getting Government approval, Dáil approval and having a UN mandate.

As regards the proposed requirement to report on the operation of the Act every two years, as has been stated by others there is already a statutory requirement for the Minister for Defence to report annually to Dáil Éireann on the deployment of members of the Defence Forces on UN missions or UN-mandated missions. The report includes details of any such missions and it could also be used to provide information relating to any delegation of operational control issued by the Minister for Defence in the previous year. In addition, there is a motion in Dáil Éireann each year on this report. This gives the Members of the House an opportunity to have a comprehensive discussion on all issues relating to overseas missions. As Senator Craughwell mentioned, all those reports, and I schedule them as a Whip, are referred in the first instance to the respective Oireachtas committee where there is a comprehensive discussion. Then they are referred back to the Dáil with the committee's approval. There is Seanad involvement from that perspective.

Furthermore, details are provided regularly in response to parliamentary questions or Commencement matters on the deployment of members of the Defence Forces on overseas operations, including details relating to the secondment of members of the Permanent Defence Force to international organisations. To summarise, the Minister is of the view that there are existing comprehensive mechanisms in place for the reporting of information on the deployment of the Defence Forces in overseas operations and that there is no requirement for any additional reporting structures, so I will not accept the amendment.