Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

The courts arbitrate on our law, Irish courts. They are the arbitrator of any law passed here and ensure that the Government of the day, any Government of any hue - the Deputy might be in government one day - keeps within the laws of the land as passed by the Oireachtas. The law is arbitrated on by the Irish courts, not any Government. There is an arbitrator and it is our courts system.

The Deputy is right that the test today on whether we can deploy peacekeepers is the UN Security Council. My contention is that it is now the wrong test and we need to change the test. The Deputy has referred to things like external bodies and the Low Pay Commission. The Government of the day and the Oireachtas appoint people to the Low Pay Commission. The geopolitical situation has evolved significantly over the last several years and extraordinarily rapidly in the last number of years. The idea now that a UN Security Council where we have the likes of Russia threatening to veto things is really serious. I touch wood and hope this does not happen, but we have brave men and women in Lebanon today serving under a UN mandate.

We all support them fully. I visited them and they are doing a great job. What if the UN does not renew that mandate? Would it be the view of the Opposition that those peacekeepers should come home, even though it is my view and I think that of the Oireachtas and of the overwhelming majority of people that they are doing an incredible job? What if Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin or any of the leaders of the permanent members of the Security Council decide they are going to try to save a bit of money this year and are not as committed to multilateralism? In the context of the Elon Musk review being spoken about at the minute, what if it is decided there is a further need to pull back funding from the UN? Are those people going to decide whether the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann have to come home from southern Lebanon? That is not what I think should happen.

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