Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses back to the Oireachtas and thank them for their contributions. On the last point Ms Boylan spoke about the urge of the EU to increase spending on militarisation. Does she support additional investment in our armed forces here in terms of personnel, equipment and capabilities? On Tuesday, the military expert Mr. Colm Doyle, who is a retired colonel, was at the committee and he spoke about the UN veto system reflecting the realities of global power dynamics and how it also leads to deadlock in situations where the five permanent members' interests conflict. As a result, the Security Council is often unable to act decisively in conflicts in which one or more permanent members have geopolitical interests at stake. Considering one of the five members was involved in an illegal invasion of Ukraine, is there not a conflict in requiring support or at least consent or even abstention from that member in terms of peacekeeping forces Ireland would be part of?