Ms Bernie Maguire:

The term "triple lock" is not in any defence legislation. It is not in the Constitution. It is a mechanism that emerged during the 2000s with the Lisbon and Nice treaties. That is where it emerged from. As I said, the legislative provision was put in place because we were asked to provide personnel to a UN mission in the Congo in 1960. A legislative framework to provide for that was needed.

Head 9, an important head that has been brought forward from previous legislation, which the committee should be aware of, states: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed as thereby authorising the State to become a member of an international organisation of which it is not already a member." Again, when we talk about safeguards, we are not talking about moving into NATO or anything like that. The Government has been very clear on that, but we are in a NATO mission at the moment. We are in Kosovo with a NATO-led mission. That is a fact to, hopefully, give reassurance to the committee.

The Deputy asked about numbers. At present, if we want to send one member of the Defence Forces to an international force - that is, peacekeeping or peace enforcement that is either UN approved or UN mandated - it has to have a UN mandate. A Dáil resolution is not needed. Government approval is needed, as is a UN mandate. If the number is more than 12, that needs to have Dáil approval as well. That is the current situation. The heads include a proposal that the Dáil would be asked for a resolution in the event that more than 50 were being deployed.