The Government will not consider participation by the Defence Forces in an EU mission to Iraq until the situation there has stabilised significantly, the Minister for Defence has said.
Mr O'Dea also said that the "triple lock" approval mechanism would be retained if the Government decided in principle to allow Irish troops take part in the EU "battle groups" mooted recently by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan.
The Minister confirmed yesterday that Mr Annan sought Irish involvement in such groups, and indicated to the Government they might be deployed in Iraq.
The Green foreign affairs spokesman, Mr John Gormley, said such participation would be "ill-advised" and would damage Ireland's international reputation.
While Mr O'Dea stressed in media interviews that the Government had not yet decided whether the Army should participate in "battle groups", he said involvement in individual missions would be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The situation in Iraq would have to be "much more stabilised than it is now" before the Government would commit Irish troops.
Government and Oireachtas approval would be required, in addition to a UN mandate for such a mission or a UN request to the EU to establish such a force. "The Government will have to decide in a particular case. The Oireachtas would have sanction it, and the UN would have to have specifically requested it," he said on Today FM. "What they want to do is deploy troops quickly. Now the United Nations will be requesting the EU.
"The EU will be requested to put these 'battle groups' together with troops drawn from different countries that could be deployed very quickly," he said.
Mr Gormley said the Greens would vote against sending Irish troops to Iraq. "No doubt George W. Bush is now looking to the UN to provide him with a convenient exit strategy from the mess he has created in Iraq," he said.