Mr. Michael Howard:

Peace support operations are much broader than peacekeeping operations. The latter implies that there is a "peace in place" and the aim of a peacekeeping operation is to maintain that peace. There can be a mandate for a more robust action, where the conditions of a "peace in place" do not exist and that can become a peace enforcement operation. There is also the much broader concept of security sector reform. The Chad mission, for example, had a peace enforcement mandate, which is one end of the spectrum. On the other hand, the training mission in Uganda, involving the training of Somali troops, is a peace support operation. That operation is about capacity building. We are simply training people outside of the site of the operation. The full range of operations can be encompassed by the term "peace support" operations.

I am not sure what I said exactly what I said about NATO because I was not reading from a prepared script but I believe I said that our relationship with NATO is stable and is not changing. We are not going to become a member of NATO. That is not on NATO's agenda or on ours. On the issue of NATO and the UN, it is important to remember that they have a good relationship and do not see themselves as competitors. The UN is asking NATO to do more in terms of fielding peace support operations generally.

I would like to comprehensively reassure the Deputy that while we have a very good and very friendly relationship with NATO, Ireland, along with other EU member states, would be a very strong advocate for ensuring that at all times the European Union and NATO have completely separate decision making structures. We would be very careful to monitor that. We also are extremely careful to monitor what are sovereign decisions for Ireland. How much money we spend on defence, what we spend it on and when and where we deploy our troops are exclusively sovereign decisions for Ireland at all times. At times, perhaps inadvertently, other countries may raise issues that we feel could be seen to cross those boundaries and we will always make our position very clear in those circumstances. I believe that our position is understood by NATO and the European Union. Indeed, within the European Union, our position is respected. I also think that because we participate in missions, we actually have an opportunity to influence the direction of the collective. Certainly, Ireland's contribution in this policy space has been to encourage people to find ways to support the UN.

Deputies and Senators should understand that the European Union is a very big collective of 27 member states and influencing the collective will of the union takes time. It is something one must be willing to plug away at but we have been pushing this for some time and we are getting traction on it. Certainly, in our Presidency and in the aftermath of the work we have done, we have a sense that we have been getting traction on that issue.