Mr. Barry Andrews:

I thank Deputy Scanlon. Trying to predict what the United States will do in the next week is difficult, and trying to predict what it will do in August is impossible. Unfortunately, in recent months, since Trump came into power, there has been a significant undermining of international bodies, for example, the World Health Organization where funding was withdrawn from the Gavi vaccination programme. We can also look at the implications of the collapse of USAID. The US failed to appoint new members to the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization. That also happened under Biden. Unfortunately, there is a massive pattern of US disengagement from international obligations.

It is not reckless to bring up the danger and the threat that the US would exercise a veto on the extension of the UNIFIL mandate. It is something that must be on our minds and feature on the committee's deliberations. What would happen to the troops? They would have to be withdrawn and come back to Dublin.