Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will not be adding to any vitriol but I do want clarity. We have a very proud record of deployment of UN peacekeepers, always under the umbrella of acting in the interest of the world community. A move away from the endorsement of the United Nations to simply domestic endorsement, or endorsement as part of a geopolitical group, would have two consequences. One, it would put our troops in much more danger because they would be seen not as acting as part of the world community but as acting for part of the world, a geopolitical grouping. Second, and as the Tánaiste is right in saying, there is the total undermining of the UN. We have been advocates of and defenders of the UN but this move will add to the autocratic view that we should pull it down. We have seen the attitude of Israel to the UN. Even when 143 nations vote, they are all to be decried. However, UN institutions are the post-Second World War best hope. Would it not be better for us to seek to reform the mechanisms of the UN rather than add to the cavalcade undermining it?

See this speech in context