Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Writing in The Guardianrecently, Owen Jones commented:

In the build-up to the catastrophic invasion of Iraq, it was invoked by Colin Powell, then US secretary of state. "You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people," he reportedly told George W Bush. "You will own all their hopes, aspirations and problems." But while many of these military interventions have left nations shattered, western governments have resembled the customer who walks away whistling, hoping no one has noticed the mess left behind.

Unfortunately, the media have been all too complicit in allowing them to leave the scene.

Iraq may have been a blood-drenched disaster and Afghanistan a grinding military and political failure, but the so-called "humanitarian intervention" in Libya was supposed to have been different. The UN-authorised air campaign in 2011 is often lauded as a shining example of successful foreign intervention. The initial mandate - to protect civilians - was exceeded by nations who had only recently been selling arms to Gadaffi, and the bombing evolved into regime-change. Today's Libya is overrun by militias and faces a deteriorating human rights situation, mounting chaos that is infecting other countries, growing internal splits, and even the threat of civil war. As journalist, Seumas Milne, pointed out in The Guardian last week, the west seized the chance to intervene in Libya to get a grip on the Arab uprisings. NATO air power in support of the Libyan rebellion increased the death toll by a factor of about ten, but played the decisive role in the war, which meant no coherent political or military force was ready to fill the vacuum. Three years on, thousands are held without trial, there are heavy curbs on dissent and institutions are close to collapse.

Fear is growing of an all-out war between militias aligned with the Islamist-dominated parliament and forces led by a former general named Khalifa Haftar, who was reportedly once trained by the CIA. Haftar has accused the government of fostering terrorism and is calling for an emergency administration to oversee elections this month. Haftar, a former general under Gadaffi, says he wants to rid Libya of Islamists and led an assault against the militant groups in Benghazi. Recently, forces allied to him took control of Libya's parliament building in the capital, Tripoli. At least 100 people have died since the fighting broke out. This effort to overthrow the elected government is supported by the US. The US ambassador to Libya, Deborah Jones, said recently that she would not condemn the actions of General Haftar, whose forces stormed the parliament on 18 May.

Most experts agree that Libya needs assistance in strengthening its central government and the rule of law. Human Rights Watch stated recently that "Unless the international community focuses on the need for urgent assistance to the justice and security systems, Libya risks the collapse of its already weak state institutions and further deterioration of human rights in the country". The US is currently training special forces in areas as diverse as Tripoli, Bulgaria, the Canary Islands and elsewhere for use in places like Libya. In what has all the hallmarks of mission creep, a small number of US soldiers are being sent to Tripoli to begin training troops, but should the US be the one in charge of the delicate process of building a cohesive security force to combat violent, fractious, armed groups, many of them drawn from the very militias that destabilised Libya in the first place? No wonder western governments and journalists who hailed the success of this intervention are so silent.

The Irish Government needs to take a very strong position - one of neutrality - in this area. We have been far too closely aligned with the US and NATO forces which have wrecked havoc worldwide and are responsible for immense destruction and the deaths of many people. There is a serious case to be looked at with regard to how the Security Council works. In the past 25 years with the veto system, China and France have vetoed three resolutions, Russia four, the UK ten and the US 43. Surely the time has come for the UN to take the role of the policeman, not the US because it is leaving a trail of destruction behind it.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The current political and security situation in Libya, as the Deputy has outlined, is both highly complex and precarious and remains a matter of deep concern, both for Ireland and for the international community generally. Since the fall of Colonel Gadaffi in 2011, serious difficulties, including a weak and divided central government, impotent defence institutions and a proliferation of militias vying for influence, have undermined cohesion in the country. Overall, two broad political camps have emerged, representing Islamist factions of varied stripes on the one hand and a loose alliance of anti-Islamist nationalists, federalists and tribal militias on the other. This ongoing instability has understandably led to rising popular discontent and frustration with the political process.

Recent months have been particularly worrying. Blockades of oil ports by militias in the east of the country have starved the government of vital revenue. The government's perceived poor handling of attempts by militias to illegally export this oil resulted in the General National Congress, GNC, sacking former Prime Minister Ali Zeidan in March, while his replacement, interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, resigned following an attack on his family home in the middle of April. Somewhat controversially, due to doubts over the circumstances of his election, Ahmed Maiteeq, a prominent businessman with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, has now been nominated as Prime Minister-designate, the third Prime Minister so far this year and the fifth in the past two and a half years.

Recent weeks have seen a further deterioration. On 16 and 17 May, forces loyal to the renegade, anti-Islamist, General Khalifa Haftar launched an extensive air and ground operation in Benghazi against Islamist militias, reportedly killing some 70 people. Two days later, General Haftar sent his paramilitary force, the Libyan National Army, to attack the parliament building in Tripoli, precipitating heavy clashes which resulted in two dead and 60 wounded.

Both Ireland and the EU are extremely concerned at the repeated use of violence in Libya, and this latest deterioration in particular. As was stated in reply to a parliamentary question last week, Ireland strongly condemns the actions of all militias in Libya and calls on all sides to refrain from further use of force and urgently to return to dialogue and reconciliation as a means of restoring stability. The EU has also voiced its strong concerns over the current situation through a declaration on behalf of all 28 member states, which issued on 24 May. The declaration called on all sides to refrain from the use of force and to address differences by political means. It also emphasised the importance of an inclusive Libyan political dialogue and encouraged all parties to actively co-operate with the UN Special Mission in Libya in reaching agreement on a political roadmap for the transition period.

High Representative Ashton last month appointed a special envoy for Libya, Mr. Bernardino Leon, to further co-ordinate and enhance the EU's actions in support of the Libyan people. The special envoy visited Tripoli on 24 and 25 May and is actively engaged in efforts to promote urgent dialogue within Libya and a political way forward out of the current crisis. The EU is also supporting the process of transition and post-conflict reconstruction within Libya through the EU Border Assistance Mission aimed at improving and developing the security of the country's borders.

There is no doubting the desire of the Libyan people to fashion a new democratic dispensation within their country. Fresh elections may be held in late June, and if these can proceed with broad agreement, it may provide an opportunity to promote that greater internal dialogue within Libya which is so urgently needed. Similarly, work on preparation of a new constitution should proceed, following the election of a constitutional drafting assembly in April. Ireland and the European Union will continue to offer all possible political support and assistance that they can to support the transition to democratic rule in Libya.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Three years ago when Prime Minister Cameron, former President Sarkosy and President Obama joined forces to bomb Libya, the Government here thought they were doing the right thing. Will the Minister of State not admit at this stage that it was a serious mistake to intervene in the affairs of Libya because it has caused many more problems than it has solved? With regard to the notion of humanitarian intervention, unfortunately, world powers are pretty selective when they choose to act and not to act and, more often than not, they are guided by self-interest rather than out of concern for the local people.

When Serbia was bombed at the end of the 1990s, shortly afterwards the South Summit of 133 states convened in April 2000 and rejected "the so-called 'right' of humanitarian intervention, which has no legal basis in the United Nations Charter or in the general principles of international law", yet we see it being used time and again, in particular, by the US and Britain.

When NATO bombed Serbia, it argued that it was within its area of jurisdiction. It tried to disown what was going on in south-eastern Turkey in the 1990s, however, where Kurds were being slaughtered thanks to the military support of the Clinton Administration with the aid of other NATO powers.

The selective application of the responsibility to protect principle is stomach-churning. There was, of course, no thought of applying that principle to the Iraq sanctions administered by the Security Council, which were condemned as "genocidal" by two directors of the oil for food programme, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, both of whom resigned in protest. Mr. von Sponeck's detailed study of the horrendous impact of the sanctions has been under a virtual ban in the United States and United Kingdom, the primary agents of the programme. Similarly, there is no thought today of protecting the people of Gaza - also a UN responsibility - who are being denied fundamental human rights.

In another domain, there is no thought of invoking even the most innocuous prescriptions of responsibility to protect in response to massive levels of starvation in poor countries. While the UN estimates that the number facing hunger has passed 1 billion, its World Food Programme has just announced major cutbacks in aid as a result of rich countries reducing their meagre contributions and giving priority to their continued support for the arms industry and the bailing out of banks. Ireland must take a different position on all of these matters, instead of aligning ourselves with these people.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy again for raising the grave humanitarian difficulty that is occurring in Libya. It is important to consider the events which led to the UN making the intervention it did. At the time, the then ruler of Libya, Colonel Gadaffi, was threatening attack and assault against the people of Benghazi. He was, in effect, threatening genocide against people inside his own borders. If the international community had not taken action in that period, it is likely that some voices would be criticising it now for not doing so. Deputy Wallace referred to the number of times the veto has been used at the UN Security Council. In recognition of the gigantic threat of violence that was posed by the Libyan ruler against his own people at the time, the Security Council passed a resolution authorising the action that was taken.

It is a regular feature of our engagement in this House that the Deputy will point to an awful difficulty that is occurring and I will ask what he would have the international community do about it. What he would do in a situation where a ruler is threatening genocide against his own people?

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I would not bomb them.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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If the international community had not taken action against Gadaffi at that time, would the Deputy not be standing here accusing it of displaying double standards? I emphasise again that the action that was taken was to prevent the slaughter of people in Libya. The current situation, as the Deputy pointed out, is one of grave difficulty within the borders of that country. The European Union has appointed a special envoy to co-ordinate the efforts of the different countries working to deal with the difficulties. The sole European Union agency presence in the country is the EU Border Assistance Mission, EUBAM, which is doing the very work to improve the governance in regard to the country's borders for which the Deputy has called. That work is ongoing. If the elections take place in the coming weeks, as I hope they will, and when the country's rulers begin drafting a constitution which might lead to the type of reconciliation we all want to see, I assure the Deputy that Ireland, the EU and the various international bodies will do all they can to make the situation more peaceful and ordered.