Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Defence if he will report on the participation of members of the Defence Forces in the UN Mission to Syria; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55681/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Six members of the Permanent Defence Force are deployed in Syria as part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO). The Defence Forces have participated in UNTSO since 1958. Defence Forces personnel serving with this mission are based in Syria, Israel and Lebanon. The main functions of UNTSO are to maintain regional dialogue, monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements and to assist UN peacekeeping operations in Lebanon and Syria. The six UNTSO Defence Forces personnel based in Syria are part of Observer Group Golan responsible for the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. One Irish officer is the Chief of Observer Group Golan and has responsibility for the conduct of operations by UN Military Observers within Israeli Occupied Golan and Syria. The remaining five Defence Forces personnel are deployed as UN Military Observers and conduct their duties in support of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Their duties include manning Observation Posts, conducting fortnightly inspections of the deployment of Syrian Arab Armed Forces and conducting patrols within the Area of Limitation in order to ensure that no activities occur which could lead to the breach of the ceasefire between Israel and Syria.

As the security situation in Syria remains highly volatile, Defence Forces personnel normally based in Damascus were relocated by UNTSO to offices and accommodation at UNDOF Headquarters in the Golan Heights, on 15 October 2012, as a temporary force protection measure. The Irish personnel continue to fulfill their roles from this temporary location. It is intended that they will return to offices and accommodation in Damascus should there be an improvement in the security situation.

Six members of the Permanent Defence Force who had been deployed as unarmed military observers to the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) were withdrawn in August 2012 when the mission’s mandate came to an end.