Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Whatever way the Tánaiste tries to justify this, he should not try to justify it as an example of flexibility. Far from it being a sign of flexibility, this goes to the core of the weakness of the Defence Forces as a result of the actions of successive Governments. I can see it is logical for a Minister to say that "circumstances must" and, in order to fulfil other commitments we have made, we have to withdraw from what is a crucially important UN peacekeeping mission. At the very minimum, however, I would expect an acknowledgement that we are in an incredibly regrettable position.

In response to an earlier question, the Tánaiste mentioned what would happen if there were a peacekeeping mission in the Middle East. There is a peacekeeping mission in the Middle East. There are actually two, but there is one-----

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