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

The Deputy is a great man for distorting what gets said. He knew damn well I was talking about Gaza, yet he just switched it. What I mentioned earlier is there may be a call for an international security force. There may not be but there may be. In all the talks about bringing peace to Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it has been actively considered that an international security force would be better in Gaza than an Israeli security presence. I am sure the Deputy agrees with that. He asked the question in the context of the triple lock. I made the point that if the triple lock continues, we would need UN Security Council agreement for that. That was the context in which I suggested to the Deputy that if we were asked to contribute to a peacekeeping mission in Gaza, I would not like to depend on the Security Council if there were not unanimity there. I would like to participate, if we could. That was the context, but the Deputy switched around to this question of us wanting to go into the Middle East and then pulling out. I received military advice at the time I came into office to reconsolidate. Yes, we are joining the peace group but we have been doing that. We have withdrawn from a number of areas, although they involve smaller numbers, for different reasons.

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