Sir, – Fianna Fáil has accused the Government of endangering Irish neutrality by raising questions about the triple-lock procedure in the Green Paper on defence (“Fianna Fáil accuses Shatter of ‘picking open’ triple lock”, Home News, July 16th).
The triple-lock procedure gives any one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, which invariably vote in their own national interest, a veto on when or where we deploy our troops on international missions. As is pointed out in the Green Paper, our traditional policy of military neutrality was formed in an era when the risk of inter-state conflict was the key issue of national security for most nations. The international defence and security environment has changed considerably and many of the threats that now arise do not fall into this traditional category of military neutrality.
The Green Paper simply poses the question as to whether the advantages to the State in retaining the triple lock, in particular in ensuring the international legitimacy of peacekeeping missions, outweigh any possible disadvantages?
It is probable that the existence of the UN element of the triple lock has inhibited a fuller participation by Ireland in international security arrangements.
It would seem to me that we could rely on the discretion of the Irish government and parliament to judge the appropriateness of participation in international military operations and that giving the ultimate power of sanction to flawed UN decision-making structures is unnecessary and is the antithesis of an independent foreign policy.
It is unfortunate that Fianna Fáil should continue to worship the sacred cow of an outdated concept of “neutrality” and rule out any possibility of its redefinition or abandonment in the light of a hugely changed and volatile international security environment. – Yours, etc,
JOE AHERN,
Hermitage Close,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.