Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister has said, the region is on fire. The reality is that the role the troops are playing there is not one of a stabilising influence. In fact, as Ed Horgan put it in a good article in the press recently, they are being used as human shields to protect the Israeli illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights. It is as simple as that.

There are other points around the world where they could play an active peacekeeping role. That is not the role they are playing in that region at the moment. The Minister has acknowledged the fact it is not an area of conflict between the two powers in that territory.

The Israelis have invested vast sums of money in illegal settlements in the area. I imagine the Minister is aware that last year Mr. Netanyahu tried to get the American Administration to think differently with regard to the annexation and to recognise that territory formally as Israel. Even the Americans could not do it at this stage. Anyway, that is the intention and that is what is going on there.

Our troops are there when they could be in Darfur, Congo or South Sudan, for example. Let us remember that this UNDOF mission has been in place for 40 years. We could hardly call it a success. Its intention was to get a withdrawal from that area and not to annexe territory, which is what is going on there now.

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