Professor John Maguire:

It is difficult not to simply say, and this is all I am saying, is that there is a scéal eile and that the UN has been undermined and Ireland has allowed that to happen. As early as the 1980s, the then Minister, the late Michael Smith, explained that troops would no longer be available for peacekeeping because they were committed to EU units. Ireland has participated in diminishing the authority of the UN.