United Nations
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-16
============================================================

Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I thank the Deputy. At the outset, I thank the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann for the outstanding professionalism and commitment with which they deploy, and have deployed, on UN peacekeeping missions. It is important to stress that there have been no new peacekeeping missions through the UN Security Council since 2014. That is a source of great regret for all of us. It is not operating as it should and I think we would all like to see the issues there being addressed. At the same time, though, we know exactly why there are issues and why the five permanent members, in the role they have, are contributing to this. This is the context in which any request for additional or enhanced participation by Ireland from the UN has to be understood. There is a limited number of missions. There are no new missions, so there is only so much we can partake in.
In regard to UN requests over the past ten years, in September 2019, we had 14 Defence Forces personnel deployed to a UN mission in Mali as part of a joint operation with the German armed forces. This arose from a proposal made by Ireland rather than a request from the UN. Our participation in that concluded in 2022. In December 2021, we received a request from the UN to provide members of the Defence Forces to support the United Nations Mine Action Service in Entebbe, Uganda. One Defence Forces expert is currently serving with this training initiative under this arrangement.
As of 30 June 2026, Ireland is contributing 394 Defence Forces personnel to overseas peacekeeping missions and commitments. As I mentioned earlier, 320 of those personnel are currently in UNIFIL. This will conclude in December 2026, which leaves just 74 of our personnel on other missions. We have 12 personnel deployed in an observer force in Golan in Syria. We have a number of missions in the Middle East, where we have personnel deployed. We have three personnel in the Syrian mission and 12 in the Middle East. We also have observers and staff deployed to various United Nations and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, missions. I can touch on what the opportunities may or may not be in my next answer.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-16