Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I thank our guests for their time and expertise. We have a serious issue in the neglect of our Defences Forces in personnel and equipment. That needs to be addressed. As answered by Professor Tonra, there is nothing to prevent that except political will. That has been an issue in recent times in the previous two or three governments. I direct my first question to Mr. Noonan. I think he is right in saying he is the only legal practitioner to come before us in relation to this matter. There were references in previous sessions and this session to the Lisbon and Nice treaties and the attached protocols. There is the issue of the confidence of the Irish people when they went to vote, and you can assess that morally. In legal and constitutional terms, do issues arise due to the fact that these were protocols attached to European treaties which were subject to referendums? I refer in particular the Nice treaty. The Seville declaration was perhaps more explicit than the commitments given regarding the Lisbon treaty. I am not a legal practitioner. Mr. Noonan can assess it better than me. It states very clearly that Ireland reiterates that the participation of the Irish Defence Forces, among other things, requires authorisation of the operation by the Security Council or the General Assembly of the United Nations.