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

Ireland has been to the fore on the women, peace and security agenda for many years. There are other countries that are very much with us on that agenda within the UN. We very much want to build that into the mandate for peacekeeping missions as well. Our own experience on this island is that if we have gender balance in the context of both politics and peace negotiations, we are likely to get better outcomes. That is certainly the case in a place like Mali also. We are actually involved in two different missions in Mali. One is the MINUSMA UN mission, where a number of soldiers from our Army Ranger Wing and some others from the Defence Forces are working with a German contingent and doing a really fantastic job there. The other is an EU training mission we are involved in, where we are working with other European states to help to train and prepare the Malian forces to try to deal with local security concerns. At every point we are constantly reminding both the UN and others of the need to ensure there is a genuine effort around ensuring female participation at all levels in the peace process in Mali.

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