Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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There has been much talk from members and the witnesses about the importance of trust. I understand from Mr. Murphy's contribution that it really is the Dáil, the Oireachtas and the Government that are ultimately the protector of our neutrality as opposed to the UN Security Council, from his outlining of the history in that regard. If that is the case, the people we are trusting ultimately, as Mr. Noonan pointed out, are the people who get to elect the parliamentarians.

From that perspective, Mr. Noonan talked about the pressures we come under, particularly as a small country. We have done very well, especially recently, in terms of those pressures. We have been taking a leading role in highlighting the plight of Gaza against all the external pressures and have potentially suffered quite significantly politically by burning that political capital, yet we are still standing firm on it. We have demonstrated even in recent times our ability to withstand those external pressures.

I would also like to highlight that in our electoral system, nobody is entitled to a seat or handed a seat. Everybody got here by fighting fairly for it. All of our parliamentarians have the ability to fight and stand up to external pressure. The electoral system ensures that everybody here achieves that. My question for the three witnesses is whether they do not have trust in our parliamentarians to make the right decisions in these types of circumstances where there is an ask to deploy?