Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Can I ask a question back? Does the Deputy accept there are countries in the world which are absolutely neutral militarily and there is no question of it, and which do not deploy a triple lock mechanism for their decisions around peacekeeping? I genuinely do not believe the issues should be conflated. There are a number of examples. The European Union peace operation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia did not have a UN Security Council mandate and Ireland was unable to participate in that mission despite wanting to do so. In 1999, a permanent member of the UN Security Council vetoed the renewal of the United Nations preventative deployment force. The EU security mission in the Mediterranean - the then Operation Sophia - did eventually get a UN mandate until 2016 but Ireland could not consider contributing to the mission for quite a period because that mandate was not in place.

Let us take a very real one. I was in Lebanon recently. I also met the men and women in Renmore barracks who are about to go out to Lebanon. What would we do - this is up for renewal this year - if any member of the UN Security Council decided for budgetary or other reasons not to renew the mandate? There is not a person in Ireland who wants us to end the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. I am not saying we are. We are very committed to it but, hypothetically, if that happened this year, if I was standing here taking questions and a permanent member of the Security Council had vetoed renewal of the mandate, would the Deputy want me to bring the troops home from Lebanon? That is what I would have to do.

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