Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have just been listening to Irish Aid and hearing about the various programmes it has around the world. We know that we in Ireland have a very considerable reputation when it comes to humanitarian engagement and peacekeeping. I share the concerns of my colleagues over Irish neutrality, however. Reading the strategy statement and looking in particular at the section under "Partnership for Peace" concerning military capabilities, I find that the concepts of "peace" and "military" do not sit easily together. I know that we want to live in a conflict-free environment and everybody should be able to do so. Despite what both the witnesses here today and the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, have said, there are concerns that there is a constant undermining and picking away at our neutrality and that before we know it we could end up in a situation that is completely at odds with it.

Perhaps the witnesses could give an update on what is happening in the Mediterranean. We had a lengthy debate on this in the Dáil at one stage and many of us expressed our concerns on the changes there. Perhaps they could also tell me when the Western Sahara engagement took place. Is there an Irish presence in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the various UN groups there? Finally, some of us were in Georgia recently and saw the value of the mission there along the border with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the support that mission was giving to the people living in those border areas. These people had direct contact with the mission - we met an Irish person with a military background who involved there - and we really saw the benefit in that particular situation. Ireland's reputation is so important and respected and I do not want to see it undermined by our being absorbed into other operations where we will not be able to maintain it.