Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will first respond to Deputy Cowen's questions. As I said, I do not want to speculate further. I have met with the Lebanese authorities and stressed to them the importance of justice and full accountability in respect of the killing of Seán Rooney. There is a broader context to what happened in terms of the Defence Forces' overseas mission, DFOM, which is the denial of access. There is an increasing hostility by Hezbollah towards UN operations generally in south Lebanon. This has created, at the very minimum, an unfriendly environment for those operating under UNIFIL's jurisdiction endeavouring to secure peace in south Lebanon. That is also an issue we have raised with the Lebanese authorities. There has been an increase in DFOMs over the past while. We are there, along with our UNIFIL colleagues, to keep the peace. We have had a long-standing tradition in south Lebanon. That is a context to what happened here. There is no doubt of that.

The criminal trial has to take primacy. The work of An Garda Síochána is also important. The initial UNIFIL inquiry has been completed, but a board of inquiry follows that. That is not yet complete. Within our Defence Forces, we to take a lessons learned approach, as the Deputy said, and to make sure we constantly look at how we can improve our procedures, tactics, protocols and so forth.

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