Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 26 June 2025
Committee on Defence and National Security
General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed)
2:00 am
Mr. Joe Noonan:
It seems to have merit, be grounded in law and be deserving of attention. I would just add that regarding the care we have to take, for very good historical reasons, in deciding to send soldiers overseas, if nobody did that, the world would probably be a safer place. We have that dilemma. We have a tradition, so it is imprinted in our approach to this, of being able to do that under the Blue Helmets. That has now run up against a roadblock so we are casting around for something else that we can express that through. Unfortunately, the indicators are that the available channels being proposed are fraught with difficulty and so we should not throw out the baby with the bath water.