Minister for Foreign Affairs backs change to ‘triple-lock’ as ‘sensible’

A move away from the “triple lock” policy required for the Defence Forces to participate in international peacekeeping operations would be a “sensible”, not a “radical change”, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said.

The mechanism, which has underpinned Ireland’s neutrality for decades, requires the approval of a UN vote, a Government decision and backing through a Dáil resolution for any international operation to go ahead.

Mr Coveney was speaking at the Fine Gael ardfheis in Athlone where delegates overwhelmingly backed a motion to change to a double lock of Government and Dáil approval. He said that without change, the Kremlin “would essentially be able to veto whether Ireland could participate in a peacekeeping mission or a post-conflict management situation or a peace intervention in any part of the world”.

He said: “I don’t regard actually changing the triple lock, should that happen, as a change to Irish neutrality at all. In fact it is simply allowing us to make decisions for Ireland.”

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The current policy “effectively means that a country like Russia can veto whatever we choose to do,” he said. “Is that neutrality?”

During the debate on the policy shift, former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes said “the current situation in the UN means that we have absolute blockage status on the really hottest issues”.

While he supported the motion, he said it should not divert from the real issue, which was the structure of the organisation of the United Nations. “If we get to the point where there’s some kind of end to these hostilities (in Ukraine) and there’s talk of a peacekeeping operation, the likelihood is that Russia and perhaps also China will block it,” he said.

Dublin Bay South Young Fine Gael branch called for a “double-lock mechanism so that the deployment of more than 12 Irish troops overseas would only require Government and Dáil approval”. Just a handful of members out of the 80 delegates in attendance voted against the proposal.

The Minister told the meeting that he supported the motion with the caveat of full discussion to “bring as many people as we can with us”.

He said the Dáil or Seanad being divided on a regular basis on sending the Defence Forces abroad “is not a good precedent”.

“I think the triple lock has served us well by the way and I think it has been a reassurance to people to have a UN mandate, to have a Government decision and to have a parliament supporting that decision has made sense.”

But he regarded the move as a sensible change “recognising the limitation of the triple lock in terms of the ability of the Irish parliament and Irish Government to make a decision to be part of a peacekeeping operation”.

It was “a response to a changing political environment globally” and “it is simply allowing us to make decisions for Ireland”.

He believed a lot of Irish people would be very uncomfortable with the Kremlin being able to essentially veto Ireland’s participation in missions overseas.

“This isn’t something we’re going to jump into, or change without a lot of consultation and discussion, not only with Government parties but also with Opposition parties as well.

It should be “something that our entire parliament is comfortable with, or at least the vast majority of them are comfortable with”.

Mr Coveney also confirmed the Government has no plans to expel Russian ambassador Yury Filatov following the ban on 52 Irish politicians and officials from entering Russia. The Minister said they needed to keep diplomatic channels open.

And he ruled out donating rockets and anti-tank Javelin missiles not being used by the Defence Forces and coming to the end of their lifespan, to Ukraine.

“We’ve made a decision, which is very unusual for Ireland, to financially support a military in a conflict situation on one side.

“We feel that Ireland needed to and needs to continue to support Ukraine in defending themselves. But we have limited that military assistance to non-lethal weapons.”

Delegates voted against a Brussels branch motion called for the State to supply anti-tank weaponry to Ukraine but the Minister said he could understand the sentiment because of the brutality of what the Ukrainian people are living through.