John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 196: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the details of Irish involvement in the recently announced EU police mission in Kinshasa; if there are Irish personnel on this mission; if not, if there are plans for Irish involvement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13707/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The European Union police mission in Kinshasa, known as EUPOL Kinshasa, was established by the External Relations Council in December 2004. The mission is due to be formally launched in Kinshasa later this week at a ceremony to be attended by the Secretary General high representative, Javier Solana, and the EU's special representative to the Great Lakes region, Aldo Ajello.

The EU has already funded the training of an integrated police unit, IPU, in Kinshasa aimed at providing security for the forthcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, currently scheduled for summer 2005. Ireland contributed €75,000 to support this programme. The first graduates of the training programme are now ready to take up duty. In this context, the EU has launched EUPOL Kinshasa as a mentoring, monitoring and advisory mission to the IPU as it commences its work. The mission is part of an overall EU commitment to support the transition process in the DRC and to help establish effective institutions promoting good governance, justice and the rule of law in that country. Ireland has not deployed personnel to EUPOL Kinshasa, which is a relatively small mission consisting of 35-40 international personnel, and has no plans to do so in the immediate future.