Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 4 together.

The committee did a very good job. The timeline for pre-legislative scrutiny is set down by the Standing Orders of this House, to the best of my knowledge. The committee kept to those timelines and produced a comprehensive report, and I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire and all members of the committee for their work on that.

As the Deputy rightly recalls, the general scheme of the defence (amendment) Bill 2025 was published on 21 May. It consolidates, with amendments, the existing provisions of the Defence Acts 1954 to 2015 concerning the dispatch of members of the Defence Forces for service outside the State. The general scheme also proposes amendments to existing legislation to provide for the suspension of members of the Defence Forces to give effect to recommendations in the 2024 Ward report.

The pre-legislative scrutiny process of the general scheme was completed, as Deputy Ó Laoghaire rightly says, at the end of July. This process provided the Oireachtas committee with the opportunity to examine the heads of the Bill and to hear from and bring in many relevant stakeholders on the proposed legislation. I am, as I have said, grateful to all members of the committee. There are very good proposals within these recommendations. I say that sincerely. I am working through them with my officials - indeed, I went through quite a number of them this week - as the full Bill is being drafted.

Under the current proposals in the general scheme to amend the legislation, the requirement for a UN Security Council mandate will be removed. I again underline that the legislation in place allows members of the UN Security Council, by means of a veto or indeed threat of same, to bind this country's hands in its international peacekeeping engagement. Recent vetoes by a UN Security Council member on a proposed resolution for a full and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza last June, as well as the challenges evidenced over the summer with regard to the extension of the UNIFIL mandate to allow peacekeepers to southern Lebanon, are ample evidence of this. With regard to the latter particularly, in the event that the UNIFIL mandate were not extended, Ireland would have been in the position of having to plan to withdraw its Defence Forces personnel from UNIFIL immediately following the expiration of the mandate.

I believe it is untenable, therefore, for the Government to continue with this policy. I again state my strong belief that such considerations on international peacekeeping engagement should be within Ireland's exclusive sovereign control and that decision-making on this should be purely within the remit of our Government and our Oireachtas, which have been democratically elected by the people of this country.

I recognise, however, that in removing the UN Security Council mandate requirement there will be a need to strengthen the democratic oversight governing the ongoing deployment of Defence Forces personnel overseas. Therefore, in parallel to removing the UN mandate requirement, text will be included in this Bill which will require that the mandate of future operations be consistent with, and adhere to, the principles of the UN Charter and international law. These principles are being refined to ensure appropriate legal effect as part of the drafting process.

I am interested in working with the Deputies on this. We will never reach agreement on the broad policy around this - I take that point - but I am determined to bring forward legislation in this area, as is the Government, and we will do that. I am, however, very willing to work with, and in fact very enthusiastic about working with, this House to try to develop an oversight mechanism to provide independent external assurance on adherence to these principles. I do not wish to speak for the committee, but from my rereading of the pre-legislative scrutiny report from the committee this week, I think the committee was teasing its way through that as well. I concede on the floor - not even concede but agree - that there is a need to beef up the legislation on that.

I intend to bring this Bill to the Government shortly - the Deputies will ask me what "shortly" means, which is a fair question; I expect it to be within this year - and for the debate in the Oireachtas to begin thereafter. This will provide - and we should provide - ample time to work through the legislation, and I commit to providing that time from the Government's perspective.

I want to make it absolutely clear that the Government has no desire to alter our policy of military neutrality. The amendments proposed will do nothing to change Ireland's traditional position of military neutrality, which has always been characterised by Ireland's non-participation in military alliances. Our engagement overseas will continue to be firmly grounded in the principles of the UN Charter and international law and will, of course, require the consent of the democratically elected representatives of the people of Ireland.

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