Dr. Edward Burke:

On Chapter VII, Ireland has refrained from many UN-mandated missions. I talked about Iraq in 2003. Ireland did not do that because of the policy made in the Houses of the Oireachtas about neutrality. The policy said "No". Everything was in line with respect to the UN, and if you could have got it through the Oireachtas, you could have sent a contingent of Irish Defence Forces to Iraq to serve under US command. We did not do that. The emphasis here is on the Oireachtas being clear about Ireland's policy. The Security Council is not the safeguard around whether Ireland joined Iraq in 2003 or not. It is these Houses and our policy, our courts and the European courts.