The Deputy will be aware that the Permanent Defence Force has participated continuously in UN peacekeeping operations since 1958 and is currently providing personnel for UN peacekeeping operations in Côte d'Ivoire, Western Sahara, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cyprus, Lebanon, Kosovo, Timor Leste and the Middle East. Ireland provides military personnel to multinational operations authorised by the United Nations Security Council in Kosovo, KFOR, Bosnia-Herzegovina, SFOR, and Afghanistan, ISAF. A number of Permanent Defence Force personnel participated this year in EU Operation Artemis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was mounted at the request of the United Nations Secretary General and on foot of UN Security Council Resolution 1484.