Food provisions for Irish troops in Lebanon are "hunky-dory", and while it took a few weeks to get full facilities up and running, soldiers were getting three hot meals a day, according to Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea.
"It is not as though Lebanon is the sort of place in which you encounter people selling hamburgers and hot dogs on the street. It is somewhat too dangerous for that," he said in the Dáil.
He also told Opposition TDs that while there was no direct threat to Unifil forces, the "large quantity of cluster-bomblets and other unexploded ordnance" presented a risk. "While there have been political difficulties and some civil unrest in the country recently, the ceasefire in southern Lebanon seems to be holding, and the Defence Forces have assessed the overall threat as being low within a volatile situation," Mr O'Dea told Green Party spokesman John Gormley.
Irish troops were there as protection for the Finnish, who were clearing unexploded ordnance.
He agreed that it appeared that the Israelis were not co-operating with the de-mining, and the Government had already criticised the Israelis for their use of such weaponry.
During defence questions he rejected Labour spokesman Joe Costello's criticism that during the first few days after the initial deployment of Irish Unifil troops the only available rations were "year-old pre-packed Army rations and that they were without fresh food".
Mr Costello said this was "inadequate and left much to be desired, as there was sufficient notice of the contingent's departure". Mr O'Dea said it was five weeks before complete facilities were in place, but this was not unreasonable, as it took some time to get such facilities up and running.
