Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)

----which of course is not covered by the triple lock anyway. The Tánaiste mentioned the triple lock not being the norm in other neutral countries, and once again I say that they have not had the same journey to neutrality that we have had. They did not have the same engagement with the Nice and Lisbon treaties which required us to enshrine the triple lock for that purpose.

I will go back to the main point of the question today, which is around human rights monitoring. I welcome the principles the Tánaiste has outlined such as consent for nations. They are great principles but they are not monitoring. They absolutely are not active monitoring. The only organisation that does active monitoring is the UN. The other organisations the Tánaiste mentioned do not have the primary purpose of peacekeeping and therefore do not apply the same level of human rights monitoring. Even in respect of the UN Charter, which the Tánaiste mentioned, he is not talking about applying it by the letter. He is talking about the principles, which once again falls short of that human rights monitoring. I welcome the opportunity to engage on this.

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