Would the Minister give his views on the immediate short term future role of the UNIFIL forces, in particular the Irish section of that force, in South Lebanon?

The mandate drawn up by the Security Council is about eight years old and, at the time, the Government were invited to contribute troops to the peace-keeping force whose primary aims were to restore government to South Lebanon and to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Clearly, neither of those parts of the mandate have been fulfilled. There is less stable government in the Lebanon now than before and the Israelis are still there. However, UNIFIL have brought stability to South Lebanon in the only part of the country where they operate. This position is kept constantly under review, especially when the mandate is being renewed by the Government. It may be argued that the mandate has not been fulfilled but the force are performing a useful function in the area which has dictated the Government's policy of renewing the mandate each time.

It has been a very difficult period there over the summer because of increased instability in South Lebanon. As the House knows, one of our officers was killed and there were continual snipings and attacks on UNIFIL forces in July and August. Happily, these attacks are less frequent although the French indicated over the last 24 hours that they intend to withdraw some of their forces when their mandate comes up for renewal in January. Our Government will have to examine this matter because the probability is that we may be asked to contribute more troops. Without wishing to pr-empt the Government's decision that would be quite a difficult thing for us to do. We will have to examine the last six months in Lebanon very carefully including the decision of the French Forces to withdraw some of their force and the failure, I use that word advisedly, of the Security Council to finance the force as had been undertaken by them when the force were set up in 1978. These are matters which the Government will have to consider between now and January. I do not want to pre-empt the decision the Government may come to.