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

I am referring to a speech he made and he did not comment on that. I want to make it very clear that any participation in overseas peacekeeping missions is a key element of our foreign policy. Any time we get involved it is because we are fulfilling our international obligations as a member of the United Nations and the EU. 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 its 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 and civilian co-operation. The Defence Forces participation in PARP will continue as part of our engagement in Partnership for Peace.

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