asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the money owed to this country by the United Nations for services rendered by our troops; and the steps being taken to recoup this money.
Written Answers. - UN Peacekeeping Operation.
15.
As of 31 December 1985 a total of £14,030,000 was outstanding in payments owed to Ireland by the United Nations in reimbursments for costs incurred by Ireland in UN peacekeeping operations. All but £537,000 of this relates to our involvement in the United Nations Interim Force in the Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Of the £537,000 outstanding in respect of operations other than UNIFIL, the major part concerns claims relating to pension awards which often do not arise until some time after a particular operation has ceased. The rest of this amount refers to claims for extra expenditure incurred during operations. My Department are pursuing these claims with the UN on an ongoing basis through the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
As regards UNIFIL, a total of £13,493,000 is currently outstanding in reimbursments due to us. Of this, it is expected that only £3,396,000 will be recoverable from the UN, leaving £10,097,000 outstanding. This latter figure represents the difference between the amount due to reimbursements for troop costs calculated according to to the rates laid down by the UN General Assembly, and the amount which the UN is actually able to pay. This discrepancy arises because certain UN member states refuse to pay their assessed contributions to the UNIFIL account. Every possible effort has been made to persuade these states to discontinue their practice of withholding contributions, but without success. In a move to make up the shortfall in the UNIFIL fund, the Secretary General has, on several occasions, appealed for those states who support UNIFIL to make voluntary contributions to cover the shortfall. No such contributions have so far been forthcoming.
Ireland's delegation to the 40th Session of the UN General Assembly, held in New York at the end of last year, were particularly active in seeking to highlight the concern felt by Ireland and other troop contributors — particularly the developing countries involved — at UNIFIL's financial difficulties. Unfortunately there is little sign of any practical improvement in the situation.
In response to this problem the Government have successfully sought to hold down the costs incurred in maintaining our contingent with UNIFIL. In this way, it has been possible to ensure that the net extra cost (that is excluding normal pay and allowances) of maintaining our contingent with UNIFIL between May 1978 and December 1985 will not exceed the total reimbursments which we expect to receive from the UN for that period. In other words, there has to date been no additional cost to the Irish taxpayer in maintaining our contingent in Lebanon over and above what there would have been, had the troops been stationed in Ireland.