Professor John Maguire:

I have two points. One is on the previous discussion. Yes, I am totally happy about Irish troops being involved in operations if they have the UN mandate, but in defending peace. I have gone into a systematic process of sidelining and scapegoating the UN which has totally altered the balance between NATO and the UN. We could walk back into a situation where NATO says the UN has to do something and the UN almost has to put its name to it. We need a reclaimed UN to give a real living mandate.

On the question relating to investment in Ireland's Defence Forces, I made the explicit point in my submission that there are very real issues of pay, conditions, promotion, retention and so on in the Defence Forces.

We, as a democratic republic, should pay our soldiers for doing the job. I submit, and would come back and argue this because it is an extraordinary thing to say, that the Commission on the Defence Forces has done a very bad job on what the job of the Defence Forces is. Insofar as it says things, it talks about the worrying operations that Senator Craughwell mentioned previously and in one sentence, it states everybody knows the point of military action. I do not and I am not sure the commission does. That is up for grabs. We need to reread this report. It is there; it is a placeholder. Everyone says "There is a report. That is great". I will make one final point as the Chair is quite properly giving me the hard stare. I would love to see a constitutional lawyer have a go at whether NATO is a regional organisation under the UN. As the placid waters of the North Atlantic lap the rugged coast line of Afghanistan, I think we have lost the track of what the UN Charter means.