Ireland prepared to send troops to help France

IRISH Prime Minister Enda Kenny has offered to send a small number of additional troops to Mali and the Lebanon in order to relieve French soldiers needed by France to fight Islamic State.

The Irish Defence Forces have already been working with the French military in Mali before the Paris attacks.  Although military neutral, Ireland provides support to a variety of international peace missions, and has been providing naval support in the Mediterranean, just one example being the ship Le Niamh rescuing 329 migrants from three vessels approximately 58 kilometres north of Tripoli earlier this year.

Although Ireland is militarily neutral internationally, the Irish government accepts that although unlikely, an attack on Ireland by jihadists is a possibility. A number of Irish people are known to have travelled to Syria, and at least four have been killed there fighting against President al-Assads´s forces.

Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has pledged to invest more resources in state security to ensure Ireland can contribute fully to the international war on terrorism.