Simon Coveney defends decision not to send Irish troops to Kabul airport sooner

Simon Coveney has said the operation to remove civilians from Kabul is effectively over. File picture: Visit by Minister For Defence Mr Simon Coveney TD and Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Mark Mellett DSM to UNIFIL July 2021.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has defended the decision not to send Irish troops to Afghanistan sooner.

Nine members of the elite Army Ranger Wing and two senior diplomats spent two days in the country this week, assisting 26 Irish citizens in their evacuation.

The team left Kabul yesterday after a credible threat of terrorism, before the suicide attacks which killed over 70 people.

Despite the initial 36 Irish citizens all being evacuated, a further 60 citizens have made contact with Irish authorities along with 15 Afghan citizens with Irish residency. 

That 75 are being told to stay where they are for now, Mr Coveney said.

However, Mr Coveney told RTÉ Morning Ireland that it would not have been possible to have boots on the ground sooner.

"That is one of the answers we don't have. 

"All I can say is that we made decisions on the basis of the evidence we had and the advice that we had at any given time over the last 10 days was very clear that the arrangements we had in place in terms of partnerships on the ground with other countries were working on just getting people out.

"The situation is everything that I've seen in the media became much more complicated. In the last three or four days in particular, and much more dangerous, and it was about time that I decided that we needed to get people on the ground. 

"And we managed to put in place the capacity to do that, because we thought it would add value in terms of taking the opportunities that will present themselves to get people out. 

"And so we sent 11 people into a very dangerous situation.

"The most difficult task was to get people from the streets of Kabul into the airport, and we had then fantastic supports to get them onto planes, whether that was France, whether it was Finland in recent days, Germany, the Netherlands, UK have also been really really supportive in terms of everything we've been trying to do.

Of course we will look at all the decisions that we've made in the last 10 days but I think given the evidence we had at any given time, we made the right decision.

The minister said those still in Afghanistan would still be in contact with Irish authorities and alternative methods of evacuation were being examined.

"The operation to remove civilians from Kabul is effectively over now. You'll see the UK and France leave today, so the operation becomes about safely leaving Kabul."

Mr Coveney said that a number Irish citizens are in Abu Dhabi and will be flown to Paris by the French military, while more are in Helsinki, and will board commercial flights.

Mr Coveney said that Ireland will chair the UN Security Council meetings in September, but was asked if it made sense that Ireland was on that council without the ability to airlift its own citizens. Ireland relied on assistance from the likes of the UK, France, Germany and Finland to get citizens from Afghanistan. 

Ireland is one of two EU nations without long-range air support.

Sources said that Ireland's ECAT team will all be back in the country within 24 hours. Seven of the Rangers, a number of evacuees and one diplomat are in the UAE, where the French Air Force will fly them to Paris, while a smaller group is en route to Helsinki and will be collected by the Air Corps within the next 48 hours.

The Irish government jet, which had been flown to a neighbouring country to Afghanistan, was not used to transport any Irish citizens, but was on standby for any eventuality and will return separately in the coming days.