Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his presentation. I would like to follow on from what Deputy O'Sullivan has said. I say this because of my respect for the Defence Forces and the work they have done over the years and as a former Minister for Defence. We must be extremely careful here. There is a constant need for attention which worries me that we are not being dragged into something that was never really our remit and that it would affect the great work we do in peacekeeping and conflict prevention. It is like what Deputy O'Sullivan said. The humanitarian approach of the Naval Service was excellent and the manner in which it carried out its duties was superb but then the follow-on involved being dragged into something that is now putting a big question mark over it. We must recognise that we are a neutral country. We are a member of the EU but we are a neutral country. As it is the one thing that has helped us in mission after mission in terms of peacekeeping and respect throughout the world, we must be extremely careful that we are not being dragged along with the others. Let the others play more games but we should really be clear as to where we stand.

I read one of the documents with which we were supplied. Section 2 of the Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides:

The Government shall not approve participation by the State in a project or programme referred to in subsection (1)unless it is satisfied that such participation would contribute to the enhancement of capabilities for United Nations mandated missions engaged in peace keeping, conflict prevention or the strengthening of international security in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

That says it all for me and that is the gospel that we should follow. We should not be dragged along because we are in the EU and want to be one of the buddies with the rest. That is not our role. Our Defence Forces are small but carry out unbelievable work. I am sure the Minister of State has, like myself, visited various small involvements in different parts of the world where we had 30 or 40 officers who were key people in a big organisational operation in terms of peacekeeping. I have been going on about this for a long time because I am deeply nervous that we are being dragged along with the rest of the boys and girls. This is why I was very anxious that we debate this. To be truthful, what is annoying me a bit is that this motion was put before the Dáil for approval before it came here. It should have come before us before it went to the Dáil for approval. It was passed by the Dáil. If we are going to participate-----