Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Defence if Ireland is participating in the EU's military exercise (details supplied) from 22 November to 1 December 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38205/05]

Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The European Union conducted its first military exercise — MILEX 05 — which was a command post exercise from 22 November to 1 December 2005 in the framework of the European Security and Defence Policy, ESDP. A command post exercise is an exercise involving EU institutions and EU member states, including military commanders and their staffs. As it is a desktop exercise and does not involve real troop deployment, it is a cost-efficient means of exercising decision-making and co-operation in a realistic manner.

MILEX 05 was the first EU crisis management exercise to focus exclusively on the military aspects of crisis management and it was the first time that an EU operational headquarters, OHQ, was fully activated as part of an EU exercise. It concentrated on the interaction between an EU OHQ in Paris, France and an EU force headquarters, FHQ, in Ulm, Germany in the context of a UN authorised EU-led military operation. Some 375 civil and military personnel from member states, including seven from the Defence Forces, took part in the planning and conduct of this large-scale EU crisis management exercise.

It is Government policy to stay in the mainstream of peacekeeping. Ireland's participation in EU exercises enables our peacekeepers to remain abreast of developments in preparation for peacekeeping in areas such as training, humanitarian aspects of peacekeeping, and interoperability. It enhances the ability of our peacekeepers to work with those of other countries and it also enables us to share our own peacekeeping skills with a wide range of countries.