Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for recognising the extraordinary work done by previous Governments of all parties that have held government on issues such as our commitment to UN peacekeeping. I really respect the role of our Defence Forces in that regard. Considerable increases in overseas development aid, ODA, have occurred in the past couple of years. I thank the Deputy for those words and assure him that will continue. We have no proposals as a Government to join any military alliance. We will not do that but we will continue to contribute to the UN, particularly through peacekeeping. We will continue to work with NATO partners through the Partnership for Peace and with the EU on security questions through the PESCO arrangement but will not be joining a military alliance.

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