Helen McEntee has said the triple lock means the end of Irish peacekeeping missions in Lebanon.
Currently, the deployment of the Defence Forces overseas needs the support of the Government, Dáil Éireann and the United Nations, hence the term ‘triple lock’.
However, this means that any of the five countries with permanent representation on the UN Security Council can veto a resolution to approve the deployment of Irish troops.
On The Claire Byrne Show, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Helen McEntee said only Irish politicians should have a say in the deployment of Irish troops.
“What we're proposing to change… is that we would remove the element office, which essentially allows countries like China, like Russia, like the US to dictate not only where we keep our peacekeeping troops, but potentially where we send them,” she said.
“Personally - and I think most people agree - it shouldn't be for any country to decide where we send our troops.”
Micheál Martin inspecting Irish troops at Camp Shamrock in Lebanon. Picture by: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo.Minister McEntee added that there is a “lot of misinformation out there”, concerning the impact on Irish neutrality of reform to the triple lock.
“We were a neutral country before the triple lock was introduced,” she said.
“We've been a neutral country always; that's not going to change.
“We're not proposing that that would change.”
Since 1978, more than 30,000 Irish troops have deployed to the Middle East as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mandate.
However, Ireland’s UNIFIL mandate is due to come to an end on 31st December this year.
“We now have a situation where our troops, that have spent decades in the Lebanon, are now having to remove themselves from the Lebanon in the next six months,” Minister McEntee said.
“It was not allowed to continue because there was going to be very clearly a voting down of that mission by the US if it went to a vote.
“We are the only country in the world that would allow a situation whereby another country, another superpower like Russia that is waging a war in Ukraine for the past four years, that they would be able to dictate where we send our troops.”
Main image: Helen McEntee. Picture by: RollingNews.ie.
