Ms Niamh Ní Bhriain:

I might come in on the previous point. The Deputy said he could not get his head around the narrative that was being rolled out. I cannot get my head around it either because it makes no sense. The logic, narrative and rationale being put forward by the Government that the Security Council somehow has a veto over Irish troops is simply not the case. It does not have a veto over Irish troops. I have explained that already; it is in my submission. It can veto missions, but once a mission gets the backing of the organisations tasked with and responsible for international peace and security, we can deploy on it. Why would we want to deploy on any mission that did not have the backing of the United Nations? The framing is completely disingenuous. The Deputy is right; many people cannot get their heads around it because it is absolute nonsense.

On the vetoes, I went through every single Russian veto - I have them here - since the beginning of the nineties to check if there had ever been an instance where Russia had vetoed a peacekeeping mission such that Ireland could not participate. There was not one instance ever where Russia vetoed a peacekeeping mission. This legislation is not necessary. The Government is laying out a case to do something that it does not need to do and it would be much better if the Government was honest about what its intentions actually are, which is to send troops on EU battle groups and potentially NATO-led missions, and not get lost and entangled in the inner workings of the UN Security Council.