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

I wish to take this opportunity to clarify a few issues because I do not want this debate to broaden out into a general debate on the Middle East and policies in that region. We have an involvement in two very significant peacekeeping missions in this part of the world. One is the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon which Ireland has had major involvement in for many decades. Pretty close, geographically, to that we have had 130 troops in a peacekeeping mission on the Golan Heights for the past 12 months. The decision that I have to make, given the changing conditions on the ground, which is always a possibility in any of these volatile areas, is whether we work with the other partners involved in the mission, along with the UN, to restructure the mission and to effectively "de-risk" what our soldiers are being exposed to and maintain what has been one of the most successful peacekeeping missions operated by the UN. Deputy Wallace said that the mission has been a failure but UNDOF has operated since the 1970s observing an armistice between two very powerful nations who were at war until then and it has been hugely successful.

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