Military Neutrality
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

-----now preventing us from continuing on these peacekeeping missions. Therefore, I do not understand or fathom how we could find ourselves in a position now where we would sit, do nothing and allow larger countries that have nothing to do with, and nor should they have anything to do with, how we deploy our troops to prevent us from continuing in missions and see us now having to come off missions that other member states are on. There are no other countries within the EU that have this position. There are no other countries that are neutral. Austria, for example, will not sign up to a military alliance in the same way that we will not, but if it is putting forward members for peacekeeping missions, it does not have to go through the same triple lock mechanism.
The Deputy asserted this evening that we are suddenly deciding out of nowhere, as a Dáil, that we are going to put forward our troops for missions that do not align with international law and are completely outside of the UN Charter. The legislation that is being proposed is very clear and specific in providing that any mission we would propose our troops for would have to align with international law and the principles of the UN Charter and that it would be a decision for this House. We are all democratically elected Members. We represent the people who voted for us, so we have a duty to make sure we reflect their views and wishes. I believe we can have that debate here without allowing an outside force that has nothing to do with anybody and that has not been democratically elected by a single person in this country to decide what we do with our peacekeeping troops.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09