Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Séan Ó Fearghaíl for his good wishes and look forward to working with Opposition colleagues on this brief. As Deputies know, there has been a lot of media coverage of the changing circumstances on the Golan Heights in recent weeks. We decided, at the invitation of the United Nations, just over a year ago to participate in this mission when the Austrians decided that it was no longer for them. We have 133 peacekeeping troops there - men and women - as part of the UN peacekeeping and peace observation mission. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, UNDOF, mission has been in place since 1974 and the United Nations considers it to be a hugely important and very successful mission, essentially keeping apart Syria and Israel, which were at war in the period prior to the putting in place of the mission.

In effect, since the 1970s, the mission has been about observing a demilitarised zone, a narrow strip of land about 75 km long on the Golan Heights, with Mount Hermon at the top. This strip has been respected by both the Syrians and Israelis and there has been little or no military activity or fighting there. The United Nations has supervised it and the mission has been very successful. However, in the past few months and, in particular, in the past few weeks, that has changed.

There has been fighting in the region in recent weeks between Syrian Government forces and rebel forces, primarily the al-Nusra Front. The position changed dramatically some weeks ago when Syrian rebel fighters attacked United Nations posts, resulting in 45 Fijian peacekeepers being overrun and captured at their post and effectively kidnapped. Two other posts manned by Filipino troops were surrounded and attacked. I am proud that the Irish element of the mission, a mobile armoured unit, acting in a highly professional manner secured the release of 36 Filipino troops whose post had been surrounded. This has been a tense and difficult number of weeks.

The UN commanding officer has since deemed it appropriate to redeploy troops from all UN posts south of Mount Hermon because it is no longer safe to have troops stationed in the area. They have been redeployed behind the Alpha line, which is the Israeli line. Almost all UN troops in the region are now deployed in the Israeli controlled area on the Israeli side of the Alpha line, with the exception of Nepalese troops on Mount Hermon, a strategically important location in terms of UN control.

Since this dramatic change in circumstances on the ground, I have been working to ensure the management of the mission responds appropriately in terms of managing risk and the exposure of our peacekeepers to the changing circumstances on the ground. This has been happening. Last week, at a meeting in Milan with the UN head of peacekeeping mission, I made clear that Ireland wanted a statement from the UN Security Council confirming the structural changes to the UNDOF mission if we were to continue to participate in it. We need an assurance that structural change is being made and while this change is taking place out of necessity, it must be confirmed by the UN Security Council. The Security Council met yesterday and I am pleased in principle with the draft statement that has been doing the rounds. Discussions are ongoing and amendments are being made to try to secure agreement on the text today. That is the updated position. If Deputies have questions, I will provide detailed replies.

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