Coveney may send troops to fight pirates

Defence Minister Simon Coveney is examining proposals to send Irish troops to the Indian Ocean to battle piracy as part of plans to expand peacekeeping missions abroad.

The proposed mission is being costed at present and would form part of a likely greater spend on the Defence Forces in the run-up to the next budget.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Coveney said a number of new missions were being considered ahead of the long-awaited white paper on the future of the Defence Forces.

“If we want to make a bigger impression on peacekeeping away from home and if we have a more comprehensive job to do at home here, in terms of our capacity to respond to defence challenges, well then that takes resources and I’ll fight for that,” he said.

“We’re looking at various things. We’re costing what might cost us [to send] a ship to Operation Atalanta, an anti-piracy project off Somalia at the moment.

“It’s no secret that I would like the Naval Service to have an opportunity to make a positive opportunity abroad. Not just because they could do a good job but because they could learn a lot from it.”

Operation Atalanta is an EU-led counter-piracy operation run off the coast of Somalia in response to rising levels of armed robbery and kidnappings on vessels in the western Indian Ocean.

Mr Coveney said his department’s white paper on the future of the Army would be finished by the summer.