Minister James Lawless has said that under Ireland’s Triple Lock system it would not be possible to send peacekeepers to Gaza, describing this kind of restriction as “extraordinary.”
Speaking during an interview on RTÉ Drivetime last week, the Fianna Fáil Minister for Further and Higher Education said he found it “sickening” and “really upsetting” to see aid being blocked to Gaza, and said his Government had taken a proactive approach to the issue.
“Ireland, I would say, has stepped up to the plate in many cases long before other countries,” he said.
“We recognised the State of Palestine a couple of years ago. Many countries are now talking about doing it…we’ve done it. We have the Occupied Territories Bill going through at the different stages…that was approved by Cabinet a couple of months ago.”
Lawless also said Tánaiste Simon Harris had “led the call” within the EU for “stronger sanctions” against Israel.
“Because what is going on in Gaza is in no way acceptable,” he continued. “Either morally, or indeed under international law.”
When asked about the possibility of peacekeepers being deployed to the Gaza region, Lawless highlighted the current restrictions on any such hypothetical operations.
“Well, look, in terms of what kind of military action may or may not be required in terms of the movement of peacekeepers, I don’t want to speculate on what could or couldn’t happen there,” he said.
“I suppose I am reminded that under the Triple Lock, as we stand at the moment, we cannot actually move more than 12 personnel from one place to another without the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council.
“It’s one of the reasons we want to remove and take the Triple Lock out of the system, because to my mind, it’s extraordinary that the Irish sovereign exercise is dependent on the United States, France, the UK, Russia and China to give the go-ahead.”
He added: “So I think that’s outdated legislation, I’m glad we’re actually revoking that in the time ahead.”
The Triple Lock currently requires that overseas peacekeeping deployments involving more than 12 Irish Defence Forces personnel must be approved by the Government, the Dáil, and the United Nations Security Council. The current government has criticised the mechanism on the basis that it gives veto power to foreign states over Irish operations.
Notably, Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach Micheál Martin previously said that the Triple Lock is “the core” of Ireland’s military neutrality, and criticised the then-Fine Gael Government of the day for having what he described as an “out of touch ideological obsession” with changing the policy.
Ireland has a long history of peacekeeping, with troops currently deployed in countries including Lebanon, Syria, and Kosovo.
The Government announced last year its intention to legislate for the removal of the Triple Lock.
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