First for Army as 100 troops on standby for EU battlegroup

Some 100 Irish soldiers attached to the Nordic EU battlegroup will be on standby for the next six months for rapid deployment to conflict zones worldwide.

As of yesterday, the Irish troops - part of a 2,600-strong force led by Sweden and including soldiers from Finland, Norway and Estonia - may be sent at five days notice to stabilise security situations and offer humanitarian relief.

Ireland will contribute a bomb disposal team, engineers and a security unit to the battlegroup. Personnel have done extensive preparation - including a two-week joint training exercise in northern Sweden - over the past nine months. Most of the Irish troops are from the Western Brigade, based in Athlone.

Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has insisted that participation of Irish troops in the EU battlegroups is not in conflict with Ireland's policy of military neutrality or its support for the UN.

Writing in today's Irish Times, Mr O'Dea said the EU could play a greater role in responding to humanitarian disasters and "supporting the maintenance of international peace and security" as set down in the UN charter.

"Accepting this role is not just an EU ambition, it is an EU obligation and an obligation for Ireland as a member of both the EU and of the UN," he said.

The "triple lock", under which soldiers cannot be posted to EU military missions until both the Government and Dáil agree and a UN Security Council resolution is passed, remains in place.

However, the Defence Forces can take part in humanitarian missions prompted by events such as earthquakes without a specific UN mandate.

The battlegroup concept has been developed over the past few years to enable the EU to respond at short notice to disasters and emergencies. Usually, it means a force of about 1,500 personnel which can deploy at 5-10 days notice for a period of 30-120 days.

Responding rapidly to emergencies is one of the objectives of the European Security and Defence Policy whose tasks are set down in the Amsterdam Treaty as "humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking".

The Government argues that Irish participation has been endorsed by referendums on successive EU treaties.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael is preparing legislation to impose a ban on the manufacture of cluster bombs in Ireland and to outlaw their use by the Army.

Moves towards an international ban are opposed by the US, China and other powerful states.

However, Fine Gael Foreign Affairs spokesman Billy Timmins said his party's proposals would increase the likelihood of securing a global ban.