Helen McEntee
speaker
447 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2026
last heard yesterday
Helen McEntee’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Well, look, the first thing I'd say is we were a neutral country before the triple lock was introduced.
We've been a neutral country always.
That's not going to change.
So we're not proposing that that would change.
And what I'd say is we'll continue to be a neutral country.
When we introduced the triple lock, this was about making sure that we could.
provide a very clear picture and a process as to how our troops were sent abroad.
It was at a time when the UN Security Council was operating in a very different way.
And I think we all have to take on board the fact that time has changed and the council itself is not working.
So we've had no new UN mandated peacekeeping mission since 2014 because they've either been blocked or they haven't gone to a vote because you have five permanent members on that council that can decide to veto any vote.
We now have a situation where our troops that have spent decades in the Lebanon are now having to remove themselves from the Lebanon in the next six months because it was not allowed to continue, because there was going to be very clearly a voting down of that mission by the US if it went to a vote.
Now, how can we allow a situation as a country?
We are the only country in the world that would allow a situation whereby another country, another superpower, the likes of Russia, that is waging a war in Ukraine for the past four years,
that they would be able to dictate where we send our troops.
And we've had in the last three weeks alone another mission that we've been six years a part of.
It's in the Mediterranean.
It was called Operation Arena, or it still is because other troops are still there.
But because that is not continuing with the UN mandated mission, our troops quite literally overnight had to come home.
And I happened to be in Italy at the time and I met with those three officers that were there.
And they've said the only people that are losing out, it's the Irish people because of the experience, because of what we contribute, how well we are regarded on these missions.
Showing 141–160 of 447 · page 8 of 23
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