Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 277: To ask the Minister for Defence if the Irish Army will be used to assist the earthquake victims in Haiti. [4131/10]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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The question of Defence Forces participation in overseas missions is kept under regular review. Requests for Defence Forces participation in new missions are considered on a case by case basis within the context of the United Nations Stand-by Arrangement System (UNSAS) and this would be the case with any such request for Defence Forces assistance to the Haiti mission.

Currently the United Nations (UN) has a significant presence on the ground, which includes approximately 7,000 military and 2,000 police personnel serving with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which was established in 2004. The UN is currently in the process of augmenting the military element of this mission with a short-term deployment (90 days) of an additional 2,000 military personnel. Countries currently contributing military personnel to the MINUSTAH mission are primarily drawn from South America, Canada and Asia. Obviously those countries already deployed on the ground are best positioned to provide additional support to the UN in Haiti and our current understanding is that those countries currently deployed plan to increase and augment their forces to meet the UN requirements.

As you will appreciate, the Defence Forces do not have a presence currently in theatre. As such, while they can deploy relatively quickly, there would be a significant effort involved in deploying a substantive contingent on the ground with the necessary accommodation, logistics, resupply and support. Having regard to these considerations and given the short-term requirement for these additional forces to stabilise and maintain security, I do not believe that the deployment of any substantive Defence Forces contingent would represent the best use of our resources at this point in time. That said, I would be disposed to considering positively the deployment of a small number of specialist logistics or engineering personnel of the Defence Forces who could have the potential to add significant value to the force on the ground, should this be identified as a requirement.

A three-person Irish Aid technical assessment team, which includes an officer of the Defence Forces, returned to Ireland earlier this week after conducting a week-long mission in Haiti. I understand that the team will report to the Minister for Foreign Affairs later this week, following which a decision will be taken on the appropriate measures Ireland should make to assist with the relief effort in Haiti. The question of what contribution the Defence Forces might make to the reconstruction and relief effort in Haiti will be considered further in the context of that report.