Sending in our troops is ‘helping the French’

IRELAND would be assisting France as a ‘good neighbour’ if a decision is taken to send our troops to replace theirs in Mali, west Africa, according to Simon Coveney.

The Defence Minister told the Dáil: ‘If France feels the need to reallocate resources towards national security, which is very reasonable in the context of what has just happened there, Ireland will obviously consider assisting.’

He said this would be done ‘from a UN perspective and from a goodneighbour perspective by potentially picking up some of that burden’.

Mr Coveney said France had invoked Article 42.7 of the Lisbon treaty.

‘It is not a mutual-defence clause but a mutual-assistance clause,’ the minister said. The article says if an EU member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, other states shall have an obligation of aid and assistance.

Mr Coveney said any idea that Irish neutrality would be compromised was ‘just not true,’ he said. ‘What I have said in response to the extraordinary and tragic attacks on the streets of Paris is that Ireland would do what it could within the confines of what we can do. Consistent with our own policy, laws and Constitution, we will do what we can to help.’

France might well make a decision that it needs to redeploy some of its peacekeeping troops, he said.