Mr. Ciarán Murphy:

The change is not due to the Russian threat, it is due to the veto wielded by China, Russia and the US in relation to overseas UN peacekeeping operations. Let us park the Russian threat on that issue. In relation to whether the UN is fit for purpose, no, it is no longer fit for purpose because it has not made a decision on a UN mandate since 2014. On being militarily neutral and whether we should have forces to defend that neutrality, Irish neutrality has never been defined in that particular way. It has been defined on the basis that we are not a member of a mutual alliance and we do not enter into mutual defence alliances. They are the two elements. It has been stated in the defence White Paper and the foreign affairs White Paper over many years. On the role of the Seanad and the President, I am not a constitutional lawyer but understanding is that it would be repugnant to the Constitution. The Constitution imbues in Dáil Éireann alone the right to declare war. Therefore, anything else below that threshold would not require additional approval. On the comments of Ms Kallas, when I was policy director-----