Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Secretary General of NATO, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, visited Dublin on 12 and 13 February this year. He did so at the invitation of the EU High Representative and the Minister, Deputy Shatter, to participate in the informal meeting of EU Defence Ministers, which was held at Dublin Castle, as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the EU Council 2013. During his visit Mr. Rasmussen expressed his appreciation for the co-operation NATO has had with Ireland since we joined the Partnership for Peace in 1999. He paid tribute to the contribution Ireland made to UN-led peacekeeping missions and to UN-mandated missions which are led by regional organisations such as NATO and the EU.

Participation in overseas peacekeeping missions is a key element of Ireland’s foreign policy and has been an important dimension in meeting Ireland’s international obligations as a member of the UN and the EU. With the increasing use of more robust Chapter VII missions-operations in the past number of years, the UN has turned to regional organisations to undertake and lead missions on its behalf. In effect the EU, the AU and NATO, together with other similar such organisations, are now major players in UN peacekeeping.

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It should be noted that any decision by Ireland to participate in an overseas operation, which may be led by the EU, UN or NATO would be subject to our national sovereign decision-making procedures - the triple lock, that is, the UN mandate, Government and Dáil approval, where appropriate.

As the House will be aware, Ireland has been contributing Defence Forces personnel to UN mandated, NATO-led missions since 1997, when we contributed personnel to the NATO-led Stabilisation Force, SFOR, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our forces have and continue to serve in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

As members of Partnership for Peace, PfP, Ireland participates in PfP’s planning and review process. PARP. As part of this process, Ireland has adopted a range of partnership goals aimed at assisting Ireland to meet its UN-EU commitments in the areas of counter improvised explosive devices, C-IED, cyber security, network enabled services, etc. Membership of PfP has allowed the Defence Forces to gain access to NATO standards, which are internationally-recognised as representing best practice in military and related matters such as operations, procurement, training, civilian co-operation, etc. The Defence Forces participation in PARP will continue as part of our engagement in Partnership for Peace.

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