Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Matt Carthy TD, has said that the participation of the Defence Forces in a German-led EU Battlegroup has come at a cost to Ireland as the government withdrew from an important UN peacekeeping mission in the Golan Heights in order to do so.

Speaking in response to publicity surrounding Defence Forces personnel training in advance of participation within the Battlegroup, Deputy Carthy again hit out at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failure to maintain or improve the strength of the Defence Forces.

Teachta Carthy said:

“Irish people have a great affinity to and are rightly proud of our Defence Forces, and particularly their longstanding track record of participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

“It is shameful that this government withdrew Irish personnel from the UNDOF mission to the Golan Heights in order to prioritise participation in an EU Battlegroup. This will cost Ireland in terms of reputation and esteem and was the wrong call.

“More shameful again is that they were forced into that choice due the worsening recruitment and retention crisis, which has seen more people leave than join the Defence Forces each year under this government.

“Sinn Féin believe that United Nations peacekeeping missions should be prioritised, but the government would not have had to even make this choice were it not for their failure to address the recruitment and retention crisis.

“Having inherited a Defence Forces comprising 8,856 personnel, today it stands at just 7,501 – it should be no surprise that over the same period the number of personnel deployed with UN peacekeeping missions has declined by nearly 15%.

“In recent weeks, we have seen the Army Ranger Wing win an international special forces sniping competition, again showing the calibre of our Defence Forces. But, we have also seen the outsourcing of naval vessel maintenance. This follows a similar arrangement for the Air Corps and, most recently, for instructor jobs at the Defence Forces Ordnance School.

“The Tánaiste’s continuing failure to deliver on key recommendations of the Report on the Commission on the Defence Forces, in particular on capital expenditure and the implementation of the Working Time Directive, is increasingly frustrating to Defence Forces personnel who do want to go to sea and to volunteer to take part in UN peacekeeping missions.

“Instead, their government, with the stated objective of removing the Triple-lock neutrality protection, has overseen the continued decline of the Defence Forces and the withdrawal from important UN peace-keeping missions.”