Defence Forces Dail Éireann — 2025-09-18 ============================================================ Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow Firstly, I agree with the Deputy's characterisation of what happened at the UN Security Council, which I believe is accurate. We did work very hard and I particularly commend the French, who held the pen in trying to come up with a compromise solution. There was a real risk that we would have seen a withdrawal of peacekeeping troops in some sort of chaotic manner from southern Lebanon. I was very worried about the safety and security, in that context, of our peacekeepers and the people of Lebanon. There is a new government in place there and a president in place. They have really taken action against Hezbollah. That idea of the international community turning its back on them at such a crucial moment was not something we could countenance. To get to the end of 2026 before withdrawal begins and then to have a full 12 months for the withdrawal to take place is a better outcome, but it is still a bad outcome. It is not what we in Ireland wanted and I do not believe it is what this Dáil wanted, but it is what has happened. I do not mean to be combative but I believe the General Assembly piece misses the point. The reality is the General Assembly can make recommendations but one cannot overlook the role of the UN Security Council. The one time that is referenced was the time the UN Security Council was in agreement with the General Assembly. I am off to the UN for a high level week this weekend. The idea that everything is functioning well really misses the point. The UN Security Council has not been in a position to authorise a new peacekeeping mission since 2014. The world has not become more peaceful. It is utterly dysfunctional how the UN Security Council is operating. Why can we not trust ourselves as a sovereign nation? They do not have this problem in Switzerland. They do not have this problem in Austria. They are militarily neutral. --- 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/2025-09-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:00:58+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-09-18