Debate over Triple Lock needs to be based on facts – Callaghan

Fine Gael TD Catherine Callaghan, a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Defence and National Security, has said the current debate over changes to Ireland’s triple lock needs to be grounded in facts and not misinformation.

Deputy Callaghan, a TD for Carlow-Kilkenny and a former member of the Defence Forces who served in Lebanon, has said that under the current triple lock system, countries like Russia and leaders like Vladamir Putin have the power to veto Ireland’s participation in peacekeeping.

“We don’t believe that Putin or others should have a veto on whether our troops can be deployed on peacekeeping missions.

“Currently members of the UN Security Council bind Ireland’s hands on peacekeeping missions, when these are decisions that should be made by our Government and the Dáil,” Deputy Callaghan said.

“The reality is that no new peacekeeping missions have been approved by the UN Security Council since 2014. This has meant that Irish peacekeepers have in some instances been delayed from engaging in missions to disrupt human smuggling and trafficking and maritime drug seizure operations.

“This shows the absolute need to reform the UN Security Council which Ireland will continue to push for, but with that unlikely in the immediate future, we need to act in our own interests as an independent country in accordance with International Law and the UN Charter.

“In recent days, I have heard opponents of the proposals currently being examined by the Oireachtas Committee on Defence and National Security claim the UN General Assembly can approve peacekeeping missions and there is no need for a green light from the UN Security Council.

“But this is simply not the reality of how the system has worked over the last seven decades. While the General Assembly can make recommendations about deployments, it cannot compel countries to act.

“Only once in history has the General Assembly invoked a Resolution to recommend a peacekeeping operation – and that was nearly 70 years ago when it established the first UN Emergency Force in the Middle East in 1956.

“The context back then was absolutely unique where it had the consent of the parties involved – Egypt, France, Israel, and the UK – and the recommendation was in line with the priorities of four of the Permanent Members of the Security Council.

“The reality for the last nearly 70 years has been that every Defence Forces peacekeeping deployment has only ever taken place on the basis of a Security Council mandate. This underscores the rationale for removing the Putin veto.

“This has nothing whatsoever to do with military neutrality.

“We value our neutrality and we are remaining militarily neutral. Ireland was militarily neutral for decades before the advent of the term ‘triple lock’ around the time of the Nice and Lisbon Treaty debates and it will continue to be neutral if these changes are passed through the Oireachtas and become law.”