Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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217. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which he can use Ireland's position on the UN Security Council to highlight the urgent necessity to restore the status of the UN as a major international peacekeeper; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47400/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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UN peacekeeping is one of the most collaborative, effective and visible tools of the UN in the promotion and maintenance of peace and security across the globe. There are currently 12 UN peacekeeping operations worldwide, with over 95,000 uniformed personnel from over 120 countries. This is a global effort to which Ireland is fully committed – with contributions from the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána, Ireland is present in half of the current UN peacekeeping operations.

UN peacekeepers are increasingly deployed to complex and volatile environments, making it vital that peacekeeping operations are designed to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and focus on the protection of civilians. To this end, UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched a peacekeeping reform initiative in 2018, known as Action for Peacekeeping. This aims to refocus peacekeeping with more targeted mandates, stronger operations, increased support for political solutions, and better-equipped and trained forces to strengthen protection of civilians.

In 2021, the Secretary-General has launched a new phase of reform with Action for Peacekeeping Plus, which incorporates the use of technology and the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda across its priorities. Ireland is fully supportive of this initiative.

During our time on the Security Council, Ireland is working to ensure that the mandates for peacekeeping missions align with the needs of the people they seek to protect, and that missions have the resources necessary to carry out their tasks.

We also believe that peacekeeping missions need to be designed with the aim of making themselves obsolete; this is why Ireland was so determined to secure agreement on Security Council Resolution 2594. This resolution provides a framework for how to ensure that the reconfiguration of the UN presences during a transition is properly planned for and resourced, most especially with respect to protecting civilians. Its adoption is a testament to our leadership on peacekeeping and our commitment to making UN peace operations as effective and responsive as possible.