John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

I thank the Minister for the clarity of his response to a number of the issues I raised. Section 3(1)(f) had not slipped past me. I clearly see that we have the ability to deploy, which means that we would not have to succumb to NGOs. However, someone will have to make a decision on what is humanitarian and what is not. I presume that it will be made by the Government and by the Department of Defence.

If we decide to deploy in a given scenario and the UN resolution is vetoed for some particular reason, we will be in a scenario where we decided to put troops into a humanitarian situation but we had to withdraw. There is no definitive answer to that and it is one of the problems that may come down the tracks. It is useful that we have highlighted these problems in this debate. It is not that we are not aware of them. The necessity for the triple lock mechanism is a clear reflection of the Irish people's view on deploying troops abroad. It is due our historical view of the definition of neutrality.