Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I regret to speak against my colleague on this but we live in an evolving world now and things change. For example, nobody would have believed or envisaged a couple of years ago that the European Union would put its own forces into a specific conflict zone. Therefore, I am reluctant to tie anything down at this stage and urge that we retain flexibility. If we commit troops overseas to anything, with any organisation, the matter will be debated in the Dáil and Seanad before we send anybody into harm's way, so I would leave the flexibility to the Minister of the day in this Bill.