Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The good we can do is done with the consent of the belligerents. Hezbollah has murdered our troops. They murdered Private Sean Rooney. The Israelis have murdered our troops. Approximately half of our casualties have been inflicted by the Israelis and their proxies and the other 50% is by Hezbollah and other Islamic resistance groups. We have to be realistic. If we abandon the triple lock and deploy troops, as was confirmed by my veteran colleagues, it will be in a war fighting capacity. That is the scenario we are committing our troops to. There may be a case where we would make that decision, but my fear is we cannot make that decision lightly. There must be a safeguard because we make mistakes.