Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I welcome our esteemed witnesses. I have served with all of them, at the Chief of Staff's branch and overseas. I learned so much under Colonel Doyle's command. It was on his watch that we had the first ever visit by a Taoiseach to Irish troops overseas, following an initiative and direction from the colonel. I commend him. It is great to see him looking so well. We are driving the Department of Defence mad about our pensions, but the less said about that, the better.

We all accept that the UN Security Council at the moment is dysfunctional and that trying to seek a unanimous decision from it on any peacekeeping mission is nigh impossible.

If we move away from that to some other mechanism by which we participate in international missions, is it not the case that in all likelihood, without the consent of all the belligerent parties and without sanction of all the members of the P5, such missions would, for the most part, be peace enforcement and not peacekeeping?