A Co Monaghan councillor has expressed her opposition to the Government's proposal to abolish or amend the Triple Lock governing the overseas deployment of Irish Defence Forces personnel.
Cllr Sinead Flynn believes any such attempts would be a breach of trust with the Irish people and a serious undermining of Ireland's neutrality.
The Triple Local requires that overseas missions involving more than twelve Defence Forces personnel receive the approval of the Government, Dail Eireann and a United Nations mandate from either the UN Security Council.
Cllr Flynn put forward a motion calling on Monaghan County Council to write to the Department of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Defence to express its opposition to the Government abolishing or amending the Triple Lock.
This motion did not receive unanimous support at the most recent sitting of the local authority and when put to a vote it was rejected.
The motion received full support from the Sinn Féin party at this week's local authority meeting. However, councillors from government parties, and independents, voted against the motion.
Despite this, the Sinn Fein councillor believes Monaghan County Council should reject any attempts to dismantle the Triple Lock.
"The other parties felt that the need for the Triple Lock was not a requirement for Ireland's neutrality but the Triple Lock has been held in existence to protect our neutrality and it was strengthen following the Nice Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty.
"At that time the Government gave clear assurances to the Irish people that neutrality would be respected and safeguarded by those three mechanisms. Now we see that Fianna Fail, Fail Gael and the Independents are rowing back on those commitments to the Irish people.
