Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Deputy on researching some of the views expressed by members of the Fine Gael party. At least they have views on issues of importance and we debate and consider them.

The debate on the Green Paper will give us a useful opportunity to discuss our position in dealing with peacekeeping and peace enforcement; to discuss the benefits of the triple lock and whether there are any detrimental problems or difficulties that arise around it; to discuss the relevance of all of these issues to the new security environment in which we find ourselves; and to discuss the relevance of what we perceive to be appropriate defence policy in a world where conventional armies do not pose any major threats at present to this country, but where terrorism does pose a threat to other EU member states and where we continue to have our domestic home-grown terrorists who pose a threat in the State. There is a range of interesting issues to be discussed and openly debated.

The triple lock has played an important role in ensuring that when we deploy our Defence Forces abroad we do so for peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions that have been given a UN mandate. We have played an important role in missions because our history and background is such that we have no colonial past. In the eyes of many countries in troubled regions of the world, although we were colonised, we do not have a past of colonising others. This gives our troops a particular perspective, whether they are located, as they were for some time, in Chad or in the Lebanon. Often the local communities in these areas have a different perspective towards Irish troops compared to others. We find that our troops can build up engagements and relationships on these missions that sometimes prove more problematic to others.

The UN mandate has an important role in all of this. The Green Paper will afford an opportunity for Members of all parties and none to consider and debate these issues. I do not believe we should take for granted that in the future we will do everything we have done in the past. We need to look at where the world is now, our place in the world, the role we play, what is relevant to Ireland in a defence context as a state and what role Ireland should play as a member state of the European Union. These are all interesting issues and I have no doubt we will have all sorts of interesting debates and exchanges on them during 2013.

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