Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I ask the Deputy to tell me how this is actually going to impact on our neutrality because I have yet to have someone explain to me how sending peacekeeping troops is going to impact on our neutrality. We already partake in missions. We already partake in cybersecurity. We already partake in training missions. We already partake in other missions. We are not talking about an EU army. We are not talking about joining forces. We are talking about sending our peacekeeping troops. The General Assembly is not binding, so when I say that our legislation will be very clear that we must adhere to the UN Charter and international law, it is the same as putting something to an assembly that is not binding. We will comply with it, and we will have to go through the similar process where Government will have to agree. It will have to go through the Houses and for anything over 50 personnel, there will have to be very clear report to our Oireachtas committees to show them exactly why they were sent, where they were sent and to make sure that they operated within the parameters of the legislation that would be agreed to here. Again, however, I would ask the question. How does sending peacekeeping troops where there is a very clear mandate that it can only be peacekeeping and for no reason other than peacekeeping impact our neutrality when we are already doing it? This is all we are changing here. It is not who is deployed and how they are deployed. We are changing the way in which they are being deployed because at the moment, we simply cannot. I think the vast majority of people who I have spoken to who want us to continue in our peacekeeping missions see the challenges we are facing now and see the changes that have impacted our ability to do what we have always done and actually think it is a positive thing that we are making these changes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17