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

I do not know whether the Deputy wants me to reply.

A wide range of speakers was invited to attend the seminar including from the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union, NATO and academia. Close co-operation between NATO and the United Nations and its agencies is an important element in the development of an international comprehensive approach to crisis management and operations.

It is important to note UN Security Council resolutions have provided the mandate for NATO's operations in the western Balkans and Afghanistan in which Ireland participated. More recently, NATO's operation to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in Libya in 2011 was carried out in support of UN Security Council resolution 1973. NATO has also provided support to UN sponsored operations including logistical assistance; the African Union's UN endorsed peacekeeping operations in Darfur, Sudan and Somalia; support for UN disaster relief operations in Pakistan following the massive earthquake in 2005; and escorting merchant ships carrying World Food Programme humanitarian supplies off the coast of Somalia. It might come as some surprise to the Deputy that NATO is an organisation which is quite different now and has evolved from the one he would have probably disliked because he would have favoured the Soviet Union in those days.

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