Legislation imminent for EU battle group role

LEGISLATION to allow Irish troops take part in European Union battle groups will be in place as soon as this summer, Defence Minister Willie O'Dea said yesterday.

Announcing the Government's decision to join EU battle groups in Dublin's McKee barracks yesterday, Mr O'Dea said authorisation had already been given for Department of Defence officials to begin exploratory discussions with other EU nations.

The objective is for the Defence Forces to partner nations such as Sweden and others to make up a rapid response unit designed to intervene quickly in crisis situations throughout the world.

The proposed legislation will also allow for Irish troops to train abroad as well as permitting defence forces soldiers to participate in humanitarian missions necessitated by disasters such as last year's Tsunami. However, the triple-lock mechanism will remain - meaning that any Irish participation in EU battle group missions will only proceed if the UN, the Government and the Dáil approve it.

Mr O'Dea said Ireland's commitment to 850 overseas troops, including those on UN missions, would remain static.

Therefore it is envisaged that not many more than dozens will participate in the near future, although a cap of 200 will be imposed. Anticipating resistance to the move, the minister said the battle groups do not constitute a European Army in any shape or form. He said Irish participation does not undermine Ireland's traditional neutrality, nor does it give rise to any constitutional issues.

"I am fully satisfied that our participation in the battle group concept in no way weakens or undermines Ireland's traditional policy of military neutrality," he said.

Fine Gael defence spokesman Billy Timmons welcomed the move, but criticised the Government's failure to act to remove the triple-lock.

Fine Gael have always maintained that the triple-lock acts as an unnecessary barrier to important peacekeeping interventions.

"I very much regret the failure of the minister to amend the 'triple-lock' mechanism. From the point of view of Ireland's participation in an EU battle group, the triple-lock will continue to act as a barrier to Ireland acting quickly in a peace-keeping capacity," he said. "The requirement to be available to deploy at short notice is a key aspect of the battle group concept."

However, Green Party foreign affairs spokesman John Gormley said the move confirmed that "this Government was always intent on discarding the remnants of Irish neutrality."

"Of course, the minister tells us that these battle groups have nothing to do with battles or wars or neutrality in the same way that he tells us that allowing Shannon Airport to be used by American troops for the war in Iraq has nothing to do with neutrality. The truth is that this Government has done more than any other administration to dismantle what remains of Irish neutrality.

"As I have said repeatedly in the past, neutrality is now a misnomer, it would be more correct to say that we are non-aligned," he said.