Roderic O'Gorman
Dublin West · Green Party · Ireland
“These are men and women who served their working lives within the British civil service system but who, following unification, would be drawing their pensions in a united Ireland. The question of the funding of that will be extremely significant in any talks following a "Yes" vote on both parts of the island.”
“Some 100 extra staff have been hired to the public domain team to tackle waste and dumping and our councillors will continue to fight for a cleaner and greener Dublin.”
“These challenges are magnified by the continued failure of the current political institutions in Northern Ireland to operate for the best interests of the people rather than achieving best political advantage for the parties.”
“In the Dublin Central area, an average of 50 tonnes per month of illegally dumped waste is being removed by the council. It is a huge amount of waste, and this is more than is collected in an entire year from whole counties elsewhere in the country. Our current model of waste management is a direct contributor to this.”
“This means that in many areas, bags are the notional solution but these cause issues with seagulls or foxes or are intermingled with illegally dumped bags. The net result is our footpaths are strewn with waste. Dublin City Council recently rolled out a system of waste compactors in the core areas of the city centre.”
“The solution is to rationalise the current system, put local authorities back at the centre of waste management processes and use this to get a better handle on pricing and illegal dumping through contracts that are right for each specific area, instead of the one-size-fits-all model we have at the moment that is not actually working anyw…”
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“In April of last year, the National Transport Authority awarded a comprehensive framework contract to the Spanish firm Indra Sistemas. This contract is for the design, supply, installation and operation of a new multi-modal ticketing system. Will the Minister give us an update on the roll-out of that scheme? When does he believe passengers will be able to tag on and off using a credit card or phone?”
“No one is expecting miracles from the Minister of State in this budget, but is he looking to reduce some of the public transport fares in budget 2026?”
“I thank the Minister of State for his commitment to come back with a more specific date. Now that we are in May, we should be giving commuters specifics in terms of when this funding that has been put aside will be used and when they will get the benefit. One issue the Dublin Commuter Coalition has raised is whether there be a requirement for identity cards. Generally, identity cards are not used, but if some bus driver or operator decided to insist on them, will children under nine years of age need an identity card to prove their age? The Minister of State might clarify that. On the wider issue, all Departments are starting to collate their budgets. Is reducing public transport fares a priority for the Minister of State and the Department in this budget? The Minister of State set out the cost for free public transport for everybody.”
“There was also the introduction of the young adult travel card. Will the Minister of State give us a bit more detail on when in quarter 3 he expects to see this new initiative rolled out?”
“As we have discussed, in budget 2025 which was announced last October my colleague, the then Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, secured funding to roll out free public transport across our public transport network for children aged under nine. This initiative had a number of purposes. It was aimed at reducing congestion by providing commuters with a cheaper alternative. It was also built around creating the habit of using public transport among young children. Very importantly, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis it was designed to save commuters money. It builds on the other public transport initiatives the Green Party introduced, which the Minister of State referenced. In 2023 there was a 20% cut to all public transport fares. These were the first cuts since the 1940s.”
“While the programme for Government commitment is weak, right now it is all we have. We need more specifics from the Government tonight. When is the action plan expected to be concluded? When will it be published? Will it be part of the Department’s budget submission over the summer? Will we hear the Ministers, Deputies Chambers and Donohoe, speak about allocating funding towards the public model when the budget is announced in October 2025? Childcare needs a champion in Government now more than ever. I ask the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Foley, not to let the chance slip away when so much momentum has built up. I ask them to ensure we see public childcare filling those areas of low capacity throughout the country and delivered in this Government term.”
“When I asked the Taoiseach directly about the commitment on the public model on 26 February, he gave me an extremely non-committal answer and spoke about resources, costs and the usual issues. The Minister of State understands how difficult it is to make anything happen in government. You have to fight, be that with your officials, within your party, with coalition partners or with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. You also have to bring the sector along. In the area of childcare, many of those fights have already taken place. Significant reforms have been achieved. There is momentum, which is leading in one direction, that is, to a public model. The Minister, Deputy Foley, referred to the action plan and linked it to State provision.”
“Not one cent of that €45 million will be paid out, however, without an employment regulation order, which is currently being negotiated. Does the Minister of State agree with me that it is essential that the joint labour committee recognise the impact that low pay has on childcare professionals and agree that the highest possible hourly rate using that additional funding of €45 million, and any remaining funding from previous core funding allocations, should be achieved? I listened carefully to the Minister's speech, particularly what was said on the issue of the public model. I was critical of what is included in the programme for Government on this issue. It lacked any degree of ambition.”
“I thank Deputy Kerrane for tabling this motion and the Minister, Deputy Foley, for her own response. In my time as Minister, I was privileged to meet many childcare professionals and see the skill and dedication they bring to their role. I was pleased to hear the Minister, Deputy Foley, talk about childcare professionals in her contribution, and particularly pleased to hear her talk about the issue of their pay. Due to the value my colleagues in the Green Party and I place on our early years professionals, I was able to secure funding in budget 2025 to support a new pay agreement for staff, with €45 million across the full year. We all recognise that €45 million is not enough but it is a step in showing the value the State places on the women and men who educate and care for our children every single day.”
“This has reportedly created a backlog in enforcement actions but it is also eroding legal certainty for businesses trying to comply with their filing obligations. The CRO currently has a statutory obligation to monitor compliance and initiate strike-offs where companies fail to meet their obligations but that power has to be exercised transparently, fairly and predictably.”
“I thank the Minister. I am asking about the operational breakdown at the Companies Registration Office and specifically how the failure in the CRO's IT system has undermined the functioning of the company strike-off. We know, and it was confirmed by reporting earlier this year, that the CRO has been forced, due to persistent failures in its IT systems, to resort to manually striking companies off. The Minister has confirmed that, while there is some non-manual processing taking place, manual processing is still taking place, which is not satisfactory. That regression to manual processing is not only inefficient; it is an admission that the system that was put in place at public expense is not delivering on its core function.”
“I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I wish to ask the Minister about the primary operational difficulties that have arisen due to failures in the IT system in the Companies Registration Office, CRO, related to the strike-off process, and how these difficulties have impacted the CRO's management of its statutory obligations to monitor and enforce that strike-off process.”
“It is important because, in the previous Government, our party was focused on as the driver of that imbalance, but I say to TDs in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, indeed, Independent TDs, they are adopting a document that fundamentally maintains the imbalance towards Dublin. That is bad for our regions and for Dublin as well.”
“Deputy Connolly mentioned the issue of there being no reference to light rail for Galway. There is no reference to commuter or metropolitan rail in Limerick to provide a link between Limerick and Shannon, or to the western corridor. We have a document that speaks to transport-led planning and transport-led housing, but the actual indicators and projects that will deliver that are not referenced. I will take a step back to the previous Government, when the Green Party was regularly criticised for being Dublin and urban centric. I am a Dublin TD. I am very proud to represent a suburban Dublin constituency, but the new national planning framework does not address the imbalance in our country towards Dublin. As a Dublin TD, I want to see that imbalance addressed.”
“This is a highly important document and there is only a short time to speak to it. I will mention some of the positives. I am encouraged by the stronger focus on compact, low-carbon growth and the formal integration of environmental assessments. The new national planning objectives, NPOs, reinforcing a commitment to biodiversity are important. Likewise, I welcome the commitment to transport-oriented development, which I will speak about in a moment. In particular, I welcome the measures to support offshore renewables and the regional targets for onshore renewables because the tendency of some local authorities to designate large parts of their county as renewable energy free zones is very problematic. I will also address the inadequate focus in this document on balanced regional development.”
“When the cost of living is still so high for so many, does the Taoiseach agree with the Climate Change Advisory Council, which stated earlier that the Government and regulator must ensure that electricity suppliers offer customers price plans that allow them to save money? Will he ask the Minister to engage with CRU and make it clear that the regulator needs to protect consumer rights over the profits of suppliers?”
“The move to renewable energy should be centred on allowing consumers to benefit from lower electricity prices. That is why, as part of the previous Government, the Green Party legislated to give customers a legal right to dynamic pricing whereby they can benefit from changes to electricity prices and only use electricity at the cheapest rate. That right of consumers to benefit from the low price of renewables is being undermined by the regulator, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. It has bowed to pressure from electricity suppliers and given them over a year longer to bring in a scheme from which consumers could benefit.”
“Those kids were meant to be in Danu last September. I do not know if we can say they will be in the school in September of this year. I appeal to the Minister of State to engage with his officials in the Department to see what we can do to unlock this process to ensure those modular units are delivered. He has spoken about the delivery of new school places this September but we have not built the units that were promised last September. This makes it hard for parents to believe they will be delivered. I ask that the Minister of State work to ensure the 12 children in Danu get the appropriate school places they need and deserve.”
“I thank the Labour Party for bringing the motion forward. Danu Community Special School in my constituency of Dublin West agreed last summer to take an additional 12 children - two new classes - to deal with a school places crisis we were experiencing in Dublin 15. Those children were due to start in the school in September of last year. They are all now on the books of Danu school. However, not one of those children has started their educational journey in Danu because the two modular classes have not been provided. Some of them are in inappropriate school places elsewhere. Most are still at home. When are the modular units for Danu Community Special School going to be provided? There is no planning permission in place and no final design has been agreed. All we have right now is a soil test.”
“The reuse of treated water will be prioritised, especially in water-stressed areas, and monitoring of emergent pollutants like PFAS and microplastics will be strengthened. Importantly, by 2045 all treatment plants must transition to 100% renewable energy. These are positive and necessary steps but will require sustained and increased capital investment to ensure our infrastructure can meet those particular targets. In that context, I highlight the Government’s water action plan. It is vital we continue to reduce and eliminate wastewater pollution entering watercourses across our country. Progress has been made. We have seen it in Arklow, for example, and we are looking forward to seeing further improvements in Dublin Bay and beyond. Future-proofing our water infrastructure is not just important but absolutely essential.”
“This ongoing challenge underlines the need not only for continued national efforts but also for alignment with the higher standards now being set at European level. At the end of January last year, the European Union agreed a major recast of the urban wastewater treatment directive. That is going to bring significantly higher standards of treatment and conservation across all member states, including Ireland. These requirements are wide-ranging and some are very ambitious. For example, by 2035 all agglomerations of over 1,000 population equivalent, PE, will need to have secondary treatment of wastewater. By 2045 all plants covering 10,000 PE will require quaternary treatment.”
“I welcome the recent improvements in water quality that have been reported in the past number of weeks. The EPA’s early insights nitrogen indicator report for 2024 shows nitrogen levels in rivers reduced last year. This is a clear and welcome signal the actions that have been taken in recent years are starting to deliver real and measurable results for our environment. These improvements reflect the impact continued investment in our wastewater infrastructure, and especially a shift towards better land and nutrient management, is having, particularly within the agricultural sector. However, nitrogen levels are still too high in some areas, especially parts of the south east. This shows the importance of continued investment in our water infrastructure.”
“We see slaughter in Gaza every single day. In light of that, it is not enough to rely on the things we did last year. The occupied territories Bill is a concrete act that fulfils our obligations under international law - legal obligations that were made clear to us last July by the decision of the International Court of Justice. Three weeks ago, just down the hallway, the UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese told me and other Members of the Oireachtas that if things keep going this way, it will be the end of Palestinians in Palestine. Those were her exact words. We do not need to look at the images on our screens. We have been warned in this very building about what is at stake for the people of Palestine. However, in the face of mounting atrocities the Government's response is to step back from the leadership role.”
“Once committees are established, I ask her to commit here today to a Committee Stage debate on the current occupied territories Bill and let the Opposition bring forward amendments to deal with issues that have been raised. If she is not prepared to do that, can she at least tell us when the Minister for foreign affairs will bring forward the Government's watered-down version of the occupied territories Bill for debate in this House so we can assess what benefit, if any, it can bring to pressurising Israel to stop its slaughter?”
“In the face of war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide, we should be redoubling our efforts, but the Government is stepping back. It is time for honesty now. We know what is happening in Gaza is a monumental crime. Does our country still stand for a world in which powerful states cannot trample over human rights and extinguish thousands of lives or do we allow this new fear created by global strongmen to overpower the deep-seated humanitarian instincts of the Irish people? If I am wrong in my belief that this Government will take no more political steps to support Palestine, I ask the Minister to tell me how she can prove to me that I am wrong.”
“We led in the call for the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. We participated in the International Court of Justice, ICJ, case on the occupation that was decided last July. In May of last year we finally recognised the State of Palestine. However, that active role has changed since the US presidential election and particularly since the general election here. I put it to the Minister that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have made a conscious choice that Ireland will take no more political leadership on Gaza in the lifetime of this Government. I put it to her that the Government will never pass an occupied territories Bill - not the comprehensive version that has already cleared the Seanad, and not the weak watered-down version proposed in the programme for Government.”
“The renewed slaughter in Gaza has now claimed hundreds more lives since Benjamin Netanyahu broke the ceasefire on 18 March. In that time we have seen the overall death toll from Israeli attacks break 50,000, the UN Human Rights Council reporting on the destruction of maternal and reproductive healthcare facilities and now another war crime with the massacre of Red Crescent medical workers. The lies that were told by the Israel Defense Forces about the circumstances of their deaths have now been revealed. The renewed killing by the Israeli Government has entirely undercut its justification of the war in seeking to free hostages, a point made clear by the tens of thousands of Israeli citizens demonstrating against the broken ceasefire. In the recent past Ireland had taken a leadership role within the EU.”
“This forum would bring together politicians, social partners, experts, big exporters and leading Irish entrepreneurs to lead an informed public debate on what our economic model needs to look like in the decade to come. What are the opportunities to better integrate economically with our closest neighbours? How do we foster European innovation? How do we speed up achieving energy independence through renewable energy and how do we protect our social model throughout? I understand that the Government is doing what it can to mitigate the impact of the Trump tariffs, but we have to recognise that this is a moment of seismic economic change. Hoping we can ride this out and regain our current model in the next few months or years simply is not feasible. I ask the Government to consider this idea of a forum on our economic future.”
“Together with the EU and neighbours like Britain and Norway, we must focus our efforts towards future prosperity. Together, as a union, we must take the extraordinary measures needed to harness our innovation and our productive capacity of directing the vast capital available in Europe towards supporting production in Europe. We need to do so in a way that decarbonises and digitalises our economy but also protects our core European ideals of progressive transfer of wealth to maintain a just society. This is no small undertaking but now is not the time for insular thinking. At such a critical moment in our country, we all have a stake in what comes next. Today, I call on the Government to establish a new forum on our economic future.”
“The open, transatlantic trading model on which we have built so much of our prosperity is being eroded at its very foundations. I do not say this to exaggerate or to be overly pessimistic. As has been mentioned before, fully one third of our total exports go to the United States. This is the highest proportion of any EU country and three times higher than the next highest exporter by share of total exports, which is Italy. The question we in Ireland need to be concerned with right now is this: if that trading model is being pulled out from under us, what are we going to replace it with? What will generate our future prosperity? What will pay for our future public services? What will allow us to invest in a climate transition? Although it is especially acute for us in Ireland, this is something every European government is focused on now.”
“Many of the assumptions we have relied upon to build our prosperity and fund our public services are suddenly at risk. It is tempting to look at this as a temporary shock that we will eventually move past, like Covid or the immediate impact of the Ukraine war. However, this assumes that once Donald Trump is gone from office, or his political capital is spent, that there is a business-as-usual model to which we can all return. Of course most of us realise now that this is a fallacy. The world's largest economy has taken a sharp turn against the globalised trading world it created. That is the kind of fundamental economic break we have only seen a couple of times since the end of the Second World War. While we watch closely how this major shift plays out in American politics, in Ireland we must surely now have to face a painful reality.”
“This is a quote from Mario Draghi's report on European competitiveness, which was published last year: In a world of stable geopolitics, we had no reason to be concerned about rising dependencies on countries we expected to remain our friends. But the foundations on which we built are now being shaken. The previous global paradigm is fading. The era of rapid world trade growth looks to have passed ... [...] ... and our dependencies have turned out to be a vulnerabilities. Recent events have rendered his words to be understated. Our position in Ireland and Europe in the past few weeks can, at very best, be described as "vulnerable". The world around us is now changing at a significant pace and those forces of change are not acting in our favour.”
“Undoubtedly, the actions of this Government have placed the Ceann Comhairle in an invidious position, but last week the Ceann Comhairle did not uphold those principles in the even-handed way the Opposition expects. I therefore say with real regret that I cannot vote confidence in the Ceann Comhairle today. I say that knowing the vote will pass. I hope there is a way forward to rebuild trust in this House. That will not happen, however, if this Government continues to try to reshape the rules of this House, to decrease speaking time and to undermine the crucial role of the Opposition.”
“A Government's majority is a mandate to govern, but it is not a mandate to dilute and make less effective the long-established principles and rules of how this House operates, the very basis for our democratic exchange functions. The Government is held to account by the Opposition. That accountability must be honest, rigorous and searching. It will work only if it is independent of the Government. This week, the Dáil is undermining that absolute principle, not for policy but for patronage, not for principle but for the parish pump. As our country faces into worsening economic and political crises, our Taoiseach is performing political acrobatics to keep these deals alive. I would expect the office of Ceann Comhairle to uphold the defence of that principle of democratic exchange with vigour.”
“I commend those who have been working on it. I again commend John O’Meara. A number of Deputies rallied behind his campaign over the years. Our responsibility does not end with just remedying the injustice this Bill is designed to. We should not allow it to create new injustices. We have to push for a system and legislation that reflect the real needs of bereaved families irrespective of the format of that family. This Bill is step forward but it is not there yet. I welcome the Minister’s comments later on.”
“It does not clearly define what level of proof will be required to establish a couple was in a committed long-term relationship before the passing of one of the partners. It is important that the legislation should establish clear, transparent and flexible guidelines to reflect the diverse nature of modern relationships. As I said, the Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill is a long-overdue response to a failing in our system identified by the courts. It corrects some injustices and a significant injustice for thousands of people in our country but I am concerned it creates a new injustice for a small group of people. If we do not address that in this Bill as it goes through the Houses, it will lead to an injustice for bereaved partners and their children. I recognise a lot of work has gone into this Bill.”
“When the joint committee carried out pre-legislative scrutiny in the previous Oireachtas, I understand the committee stated it supported FLAC’s recommendations of retaining the current entitlement of divorced and separated partners to a survivor’s pension and that it should be expanded to surviving qualified cohabitants who were separated, as opposed to taking this levelling-down approach outlined in the general scheme. I welcome the Minister’s comments on that in his summation. The other issue is proof of cohabitation. While the Bill rightly acknowledges the need to extend pension rights to cohabiting partners, the process for providing proof of cohabitation is quite vague and potentially problematic.”
“Under the previous legislation, separated or divorced individuals could qualify for a pension upon their former partner’s death provided they had not remarried or entered into a new cohabiting relationship. This Bill removes that entitlement, leaving those who may have been financially dependent on a former spouse or civil partner without support at an already difficult time. This is a serious and unnecessary omission. I hope in his concluding remarks the Minister can give his thoughts about why that is in there. I do not see the justification.”
“Given there are more than 150,000 cohabiting couples living in Ireland today, this is a necessary and long-overdue correction. It is good to see retrospective implementation. It is up to the date on which the court made its ruling in January last year. There is protection for current recipients that they will not lose any entitlements under the existing legislation. These are positive changes but while the Bill is a step forward it is far from a complete solution. Some significant issues remain which must be addressed if this Bill is to give the fairness and justice I understand it is designed to give. The first, which has already been raised, is the loss of entitlement for some bereaved individuals.”
“Rather than accepting this unfairness, he took his fight to the courts. It was a fight not just for himself and his children but for thousands of families all over the country who faced that same discrimination. In January last year in a landmark decision, the Supreme Court said section 124 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act was unconstitutional. For years, that provision excluded bereaved cohabiting partners and their children from this essential support. The court’s ruling was clear and was that the law must change to reflect the realities of modern family life. I wish to welcome key elements of the Bill. The first is the inclusion of cohabiting partners. The Bill extends eligibility to cohabitants who were in an intimate and committed relationship for at least five years or two if they have children.”
“Today, we discuss a significant but overdue change in our social welfare system that seeks to address a long-standing injustice. The social welfare Bill we are discussing is a direct response to the Supreme Court ruling in the O’Meara case delivered in January last year. That ruling exposed the very real inadequacies in the current law. It also reaffirmed the need for a system that is fair, more inclusive and in particular reflective of modern family life. Before I discuss the Bill and some of my concerns, I recognise the remarkable bravery of John O’Meara. In 2021, he lost his partner Michelle to cancer and Covid-19. Even though they had three children together and had been in a long-term committed relationship, Mr. O’Meara was denied the widower’s contributory pension simply because he and Michelle were not legally married.”
“Will the Government, as shareholders of Coillte, demand that the organisation reconsider its abandonment of its nature obligations?”
“Coillte has got rid of Coillte Nature, its not-for-profit climate division. We are told it is being absorbed into the wider organisation. We are told that the need for a separate nature team has been superseded by the overall Coillte strategic vision, which was published in 2022. Yet, that strategic vision - that very document - spotlighted Coillte Nature as delivering nature projects at scale. Only last year, Coillte Nature signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Parks and Wildlife Service on restoring biodiversity on Coillte lands, so how is it that a division of Coillte that was central to delivering nature-based solutions up to one year ago is suddenly dispensable? Is the Government comfortable with the decision to quietly delete Coillte Nature, a decision that was taken while the new Government was actually forming?”
“It is clear that many thousands of Ukrainians will receive some form of status in EU countries. We must prepare for that day and we must provide supports to allow those who stay to live and work independently.”
“That cannot wait until one week before the deadline, as happened in this year's situation. We do not know if the war in Ukraine will be ongoing next year. Even if there is a ceasefire, there may be large parts of the country that remain under occupation. We should be supporting Ukrainians to return home, to begin the work of rebuilding their country, when and where it is safe to do so. However, it is likely that many Ukrainians will want to stay and we need to provide them with clarity. There needs to be a transition plan. Suggestions that we direct them to the international protection process would be a disaster. That system is already under enormous capacity pressure and is massively overstretched. Obviously, the approach after the temporary protection directive needs to be co-ordinated at EU level.”
“As Minister at the time overseeing the needs of Ukrainians fleeing the war, I recall meeting the Scottish Government Minister tasked with deploying Scotland's version of the pledged-homes process. They had enormous difficulties setting up their version of the scheme, known as Homes for Ukraine. Ultimately, Scotland ended up hosting a far smaller number of people than we were able to achieve. We quite simply could not have provided the humanitarian operation that we did as a country without the ARP. There was always going to be a time when the ARP would need to be tailed off and the Government is beginning that process today. Now that today's decision has been made, the most critical thing the Government needs to do is to devise and implement a clear plan for what we do once the temporary protection directive expires in a year's time.”
“During that extreme crisis period, the administrative challenges were immense. However, the State recognised that there was a readily available supply of spare rooms, holiday homes and granny flats, the vast majority of which would not normally be part of rental supply, nor would they ever be. The State knew that we could, and should, activate this to provide the critical emergency shelter. Now, largely thanks to the ARP, pledged accommodation accounts for the largest cohort of Ukrainian accommodation in the country. Some 37,000 people still reside in ARP-supported homes. This is by some degree the most successful example of this type of scheme in Europe. It is actually held up as an exemplar by the International Red Cross.”
“I welcome the fact that this motion has been brought to the House today. Its passage will bring clarity and certainty to the 37,000 Ukrainians who are currently in homes supported by the accommodation recognition payment, ARP, and the thousands of Irish people who have provided them with accommodation. It is worth recalling that the ARP was conceived at a time of extreme crisis, when thousands of people were arriving in Dublin Airport every week, including men, women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities. All of them needed a place to stay that night and for the months and years that followed. At that time, every single lever available needed to be pulled and pulled rapidly. Deputies will no doubt recall the pledge process. It did not immediately get off the ground smoothly.”
“We should state clearly that we will not act outside a UN Security Council mandate when participating in peace-enforcement missions which require proactive military engagements, offensively imposing order. Were Ireland to deploy in enforcement missions without Security Council consent, the risks of being seen by one or more parties as partisan are clear. So too, are the risks that Ireland contributes to force led by states that ultimately act in their own interests, rather than in strict adherence to the principles of the UN Charter. I would very much like to hear the Minister of State's response, as the distinction between peacekeeping and peace-enforcement is critical to this debate.”
“Peacekeeping in general has been the deployment of the minimal multilateral force necessary, with the agreement of all sides to a dispute, with a mandate to provide a security presence to protect civilian life, to prevent conflict from escalating further and to create space to build the peace through humanitarian aid and peace-building programmes. Peace enforcement is the deployment of a force without the specific consent of the parties to a conflict, which uses a coercive military force to impose a cessation in fighting between two or more parties. If the State is to preserve that crucial neutral and trusted role, built up over decades, and move beyond what is often a paralysed UN Security Council, we must enunciate a visible, principled alternative as a State.”