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

The Deputy seems to be of the views that when there is a UN-mandated mission this State should not participate.

This State has an honoured tradition of participating in missions of a peacekeeping nature and missions that can contribute to conflict resolution and the protection of civilian life. It is particularly interesting that the Deputy fails to make any reference to the UN mandate. I do not know if he believes that our Defence Forces should ever participate in peacekeeping missions or that we should play no role in the outside world and never seek to provide any assistance to anyone. Not only is this a UN mission, but all 27 European countries, all of which are democracies, taking account of what is happening in Mali, recognise the need to contribute to the UN mission and to engage and try to provide the type of training necessary to ensure that the Malian army is properly trained, does not engage in human rights abuses and that civilians are protected. I believe we should give careful consideration to whether we participate in this mission. As I stated, no final decision has been made. On the basis of the approach taken by the Deputy, we would not participate in any UN missions in any location in the world. The reality is the only parts of the world which require UN peacekeeping or conflict resolution engagements are troubled parts of the world wherein, sadly and tragically, there is and has been violence and lives have been lost. The purpose of a UN mission is to seek to facilitate addressing that particular difficulty.

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