Mr. Barry Andrews:

Israel put pressure on the Irish troops to withdraw about a year ago. Irish troops were under extraordinary pressure and withheld and stood up to that pressure. Their independence there is underlined by the fact that they have also come under fire from Hezbollah forces prior to that. We all know about the tragic death of Seán Rooney in those circumstances. It is an extraordinary legacy; the longest running peacekeeping presence anywhere. It was a huge honour for me to be in Camp Shamrock and to see that. The way the Deputy characterises is correct. We have the two sides of the Security Council - P5 - facing each other in the Middle East through proxies at war. It is absurd that we consider that those parties should have a veto over the question of deployment of troops. It is extraordinary and to me is a question of sovereignty. We are taking control of this decision back into our democratic institutions. I published that paper calling for the end of the triple lock in 2022. I then put my name forward for election and got re-elected. Those of us who feel we need to evolve as everyone else has have put that before the people in our democratic mandates and are entitled to push these issues in our parliamentary forums.