Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is fine for now. I will move on to the next question. As Mr. Howard is aware, the operation in Mali has a wider context. Many of the European countries have a colonial history, particularly in north Africa but also throughout Africa - we are talking about north Africa for the purposes of this conversation - which is not something to be proud of. There are always concerns about the natural resources and the interests of corporations based in Europe. The most recent conflicts include the uprising in Tunisia where France was seen to have been on the wrong side and continued to support Ben Ali, the dictator, up to the end. In Libya, the African Union strongly criticised the NATO response to the UN Security Council Resolution which was not about regime change but protection of civilians. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl and I had the opportunity to meet the chairman of the African Union, Jean Ping, who actually put those detailed criticisms to us regarding its concerns about what would happen. Those concerns have been vindicated. This has been the recent context for NATO-led operations in Africa, in Libya against the advice and interests of the African Union itself and in Mali where we have deployed eight members of our Defence Forces - we have had a debate in the Houses of the Oireachtas on the Defence Forces because the number has to reach 12.

We know there is considerable criticism of the Malian government and army in terms of human rights abuses from the UN and Human Rights Watch and other human rights NGOs. The question for people who are proud of our neutrality and the potential that neutrality offers in conflict resolution across the world is what are we doing there with a NATO-led operation, under a UN banner, which I accept. It is a NATO state-led operation, and NATO is involved in training an army that is guilty of gross human rights abuses and taking sides. Meanwhile, on the other side we are very proud of our Defence Forces in Lebanon who are in blue helmet operations that are peacekeeping operations. That has been our legacy.

Today we were at church honouring our 1916 heroes and on our right hand side there were those who gave their life for the State, proudly serving our Defence Forces in peacekeeping operations. There are UN Security Council resolutions about Palestine, the settlements in Palestine and the illegal settlements that are ongoing to this day. Ireland has never militarily given support to the Palestinian people or intervened to enforce those UN Security Council resolutions, yet we have chosen to go under a banner and operate in Mali. Why?