Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I am unaware of the UN or our Defence Forces engaging in aggressive missions of any description. The primary focus is peacekeeping, peace enforcement, humanitarian intervention and conflict prevention. These are the central focus of our approach in the international context.

As the Deputy will know, we will shortly deploy 440 of our troops to southern Lebanon as part of a UNIFIL mission, which is a tradition within our Defence Forces, to contribute to peacekeeping in that area. We will go there on foot of a long-standing UN mission, in which we have previously participated, with a view to ensuring that conflict does not break out in those areas and that peace is maintained in the interests of the local population.

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