The issue of sending Irish troops to Lebanon will be discussed at a meeting of the Government on Wednesday, when cabinet members will hear initial assessments from Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern. After a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels last Friday, Mr Ahern said Ireland could now consider making a "substantive" contribution to the UN mission.
A formal decision to send troops is unlikely to be taken just yet and the Irish contingent will not travel until October or perhaps later, according to Government sources. The "triple-lock" mechanism requires that the Dáil must approve any such decision, but the House is unlikely to be recalled early. However, it will probably be one of the first items for discussion after TDs return on September 27th.
Although the Irish contingent will be comparatively small - no more than 150 - a division of views has emerged between left-wing and anti-war parties and organisations over the issue.
Broadly speaking, parties with Dáil representation tend to be in favour of Irish participation whereas other organisations who have no parliamentary representation are more likely to be against.
But even those who are fundamentally in favour of sending an Irish contingent have voiced fears about the safety of our soldiers. These echo concerns across the political spectrum, where questions are being asked about the rules of engagement for the UN force and their role in any attempt to disarm Hizbullah.
Chairman of the Irish Anti-War Movement Richard Boyd Barrett has expressed outright opposition to an Irish role in south Lebanon. He believes no Western troops should be involved, whether Irish or otherwise, because of fundamental flaws in UN Security Council resolution 1701.
"The UN resolution is ambiguous and biased in favour of Israel and therefore is unlikely to prevent an outbreak of further conflict. Specifically, the resolution is ambiguous on the disarming of Hizbullah, but already there are very clear indications that the US and Israel will interpret the resolution as a demand to do just that. It also repeats what I think is a lie, that Hizbullah started the conflict.
"There is very substantial evidence now that the Israeli assault on Lebanon had nothing to do with hostages, but was planned months in advance with the connivance of the US and was part of the preparations for a future US assault on Iran and maybe Syria," Mr Boyd Barrett said.
The notion that south Lebanon is only a dress rehearsal for a future attack on Iran is shared by the Anti-War Network, a coalition of different groups of activists, which is "vehemently" opposed to any role for the Irish Army in Lebanon.
Another leading anti-war campaigner, Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, gave his personal view that "the key purpose of the troops being sent to Lebanon is to go to war (or to 'disarm' them, as it is politely put in the corporate media) with the resistance in Lebanon; in effect, to take up where the Israeli army left off". Although opposed to sending troops, he regards it as inevitable: "Ireland is now not only not neutral, it is an integral part of the Bush/Blair war machine."
Responding initially to a query from this newspaper, the NGO Peace Alliance said it favoured sending troops on a short-term basis, provided they had a peacekeeping rather than "peace-enforcement" role and were not aligned in any way with the Israeli Defence Forces, but this statement has since been withdrawn, "pending a full meeting of the executive".
The Labour Party and Sinn Féin have taken a broadly similar stance. Labour's defence spokesman, Joe Costello, said: "I do not believe that we should turn our back on a request for support from either the Lebanese government or the United Nations." However, he accepted that it would "undoubtedly be a very dangerous mission".
Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh echoed these sentiments, but added that the UN should patrol both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border. Green Party chairman John Gormley has urged a cautious approach: "The rules of engagement for any UN force need to be studied carefully and debated fully in the Dáil. The situation in southern Lebanon is still extremely volatile and serious doubts have been expressed about the durability of the ceasefire."