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 over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.

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The Claire Byrne Show · Minister for Foreign Affairs on the Triple Lock · 26 Jun 2026 podcast

And they are all peacekeeping missions.

So to reassure people, because I think this narrative that we're going to suddenly become this country that sends our troops off to war, the legislation that is being proposed and that government has proposed is...

is very specific to peacekeeping.

It's very clear the types of missions that they would be sent on.

It's very clear that this would still have to be over a certain number approved by the Dáil.

There would still be oversight.

And I think it's only right and proper that it is the people who are democratically elected in this country are the ones that decide with the defence forces, obviously, where our troops go and not countries like Russia, China, the US, many of whom are engaged in conflict at the moment.

And I don't think we're shying away from that.

And the UN themselves know that.

So, I mean, I am regularly engaged with the UN, with the deputy secretary who's involved in the mission in Lebanon.

You know, so it's not that they're saying, what is Ireland doing?

We can't believe they're doing this.

They're very supportive of the fact that we want to continue to send troops abroad.

and we're actually going to be prevented from potentially doing that.

So if there's new missions being proposed in Lebanon, depending on what they are, we may or may not be able to join.

And for a country that has such a proud tradition, I mean, I went to the last ceremony where, you know, you basically send off the troops to Lebanon, their families come, they're there, they come together.

There's people who have gone on four and five missions, their parents have gone on missions, their cousins, there's generations of family members

And we are saying now that potentially if a new mission, depending on what it is, is put in Lebanon, we mightn't be able to do that because we don't have a UN security mandated mission.

I don't think it's right.

I think we are a sovereign country and I think we should be able to determine where we send our troops.

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