110. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Defence if she intends to take steps in order that a vote of the UN General Assembly would allow for the deployment of Irish troops on overseas peacekeeping missions, particularly in a situation where the UN Security Council is deadlocked; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53578/26]

The United Nations Charter is very clear in establishing the primacy of the United Nations Security Council in matters relating to international peace and security (Articles 24 & 25 particularly).  Under the Charter, it is the Security Council that has responsibility for taking decisions in this area. In practice, peacekeeping missions are only ever deployed on the basis of mandates from the UN Security Council.

While the General Assembly can, and does, make recommendations to Member States, resolutions of the General Assembly cannot compel action and do not have the same legal authority as resolutions of the Security Council.

The Deputy may be aware that only once in history has the General Assembly invoked a Resolution (the Uniting for Peace Resolution) to recommend a peacekeeping operation. This occurred 70 years ago, in 1956, when it established the first UN Emergency Force in the Middle East. Even then, it was a peacekeeping rather than peace enforcement operation as envisaged in Article 42 of the UN Charter and was carried out with the consent and cooperation of the parties involved.

Ultimately, while the UN General Assembly can make recommendations to Member States, under the UN Charter, the Security Council alone has the power to take decisions which Member States are obliged to implement.

In practice therefore, UN peacekeeping operations are only ever deployed on the basis of mandates from the United Nations Security Council, and overseas deployments to peace keeping operations involving the Defence Forces has only ever taken place on the basis of a Security Council mandate.

The primacy of the UN Security Council underlines the rationale for the intention to reassess the current triple lock arrangement, therefore. In effect, the provision currently allows members of the UNSC to bind Ireland’s hands in its international engagement when these are decisions that should be made by our Government and Dáil.

The Government's view is that decisions regarding the deployment of Irish personnel overseas should ultimately be taken by the Irish Government and approved by Dáil Éireann, rather than being dependent on factors outside the control of the State. The proposed reforms are intended to ensure that Ireland can continue to contribute to international peace and security while maintaining full democratic oversight of such deployments.