Ireland is marking its 70th anniversary since it joined the United Nations. What does the UN mean to Ireland, and what does Ireland mean to the UN?
An active UN member
Ireland became the UN’s 63rd Member State in December 1955. Today, the organisation counts 193 Member States.
“Multilateralism has been central to Irish foreign policy since the foundation of the state,” Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin told UNRIC in an interview in 2023. “As a small state, we depend on the multilateral system and the rules-based international order.”
Ireland has served as one of the 15 members of the Security Council on four occasions: in 1962, 1981–1982, 2001-2002 and 2021-2022. Its most recent term was underpinned by three core principles: building peace; strengthening conflict prevention; and ensuring accountability.
Ireland is currently seeking a term on the Human Rights Council for the period 2027-2029.
“We know that the UN’s success ultimately depends on its Member States, and we have always sought to make a constructive and principled contribution,” underlined Micheál Martin.
Ireland’s contribution to the UN and global development
The budget for the UN Secretariat totals $3.45 billion for 2026, and Ireland’s contribution is $15.1 million, which it paid in full in January. Payments to the UN are based on a state’s relative ability to pay, calculated through a series of criteria such as the size of a country’s economy and its income per capita.
The UN is also made up of a vast range of agencies, funds, programmes and peacekeeping missions which are funded separately.
Ireland states that “working with the UN is central to supporting peace, human rights and development.”
In recent years, Ireland has increased its development funding. It provided over €330 million in direct response to humanitarian crises around the world in 2025, compared to €181 million in 2019. It has pledged to spend 0.7% of its Gross National Income (GNI) on development assistance by 2030.
Ireland supports several UN agencies, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP); the UN’s children’s agency (UNICEF); the UN agency for refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). In 2026 it pledged €20 million to support the work the of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees.
A longstanding commitment to peacekeeping
Ireland is “proud of being the only nation to have a continuous presence on UN and UN-mandated peace support operations since 1958.”
The Government decides on a case-by-case basis whether, when and how to commit Defence Forces personnel to peacekeeping operations. The ‘triple lock’ of UN authorisation, Government approval, and Dáil approval must be satisfied before the Defence Forces can deploy.
As of December 2025, there are 328 Irish peacekeepers. Its largest deployment currently is with the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), with 299 personnel (troops and staff officers) deployed there as of December 2025. To date over 30,000 personnel have served in Lebanon.
Ireland’s financial contribution to the UN peacekeeping budget in 2024 was set at 0.44% of the total $5.6 billion budget. As a comparison, the United States’ contribution was set at 26.9%, and the UK’s at 5.36%.
“Peacekeeping remains one of the most visible and impactful expressions of the United Nations’ work around the world. It embodies the core values of multilateralism, cooperation, and shared responsibility,” said Neale Richmond, Irish Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora at the UN’s Peacekeeping Ministerial in May 2025.
Ireland and the UN system
In 2024, 456 Irish nationals were working for the UN Secretariat and UN agencies, funds and programmes across the globe. There were 33 staff working for the UN in Ireland in the same year at the International Organization for Migration (IMO) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In 2025, Ireland and UNDP announced the establishment of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Project Office for Sustainable Finance in Dublin.
The Republic of Ireland has two properties on UNESCO’s World Heritage List: Brú na Bóinne – Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne; and Sceilg Mhichíl. Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature, and Galway is a UNESCO City of Film.
It also has UNESCO Geoparks, areas of exceptional geological significance that promote awareness of the earth’s geological heritage. Burren and Cliffs of Moher is a geopark spanning 530 km2 on the west coast of Ireland. The Copper Coast UNESCO Global Geopark is located on the south east coast of Ireland, between Tramore and Dungarvan in County Waterford. The Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark is the World’s first UNESCO Global Geopark crossing an international border. It lies in the north-west corner of the island of Ireland, much of it is in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and a remainder is in County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland.
A key supplier to the UN system
In 2024, Irish companies provided $165.19 million in goods and services to the UN.
The top categories were engineering and research services ($60.9 million); laboratory and testing equipment ($23.7 million); and pharmaceuticals, contraceptives and vaccines ($22 million). The largest UN recipient was UNHCR ($28.5 million).
Ireland’s role in building a better planet
In 2015, Ireland played a central role along with Kenya in facilitating the agreement on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Agreed by all 193 UN Member States, these goals are the blueprint for creating a peaceful and prosperous planet.
Ireland is committed to achieving the SDGs, and a 2023 report found it has fully achieved over 80% of the 169 targets. Significant progress has been made on targets in areas such as education, hunger, health and wellbeing.
Ireland runs the ‘SDG Champions Programme’, selecting advocates of the SDGs from across society, including the public, private and community sectors. The 2025-2027 champions include Galway City Council, Munster Rugby and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Junk Kouture, which challenges young people to make clothes out of recycled waste, is both a former SDG Champion and winner of an MIPTV SDG Innovation Award.
Familiar Irish faces at the UN
Ireland’s first woman president, Mary Robinson, served as the UN’s Human Rights Chief from 1997 to 2002. She was later appointed UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa from 2013 to 2014, and UN Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2014 to 2015.
Actor Liam Neeson has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF for over twenty years.
Ireland’s first female Brigadier Major General Maureen O’Brien was appointed by the UN as Deputy Military Advisor in the Office of Military Affairs, Department of Peace Operations in 2021.
See also:
- Championing the SDGs: Irish organisations driving change
- Women in diplomacy: Mary Robinson’s ongoing global legacy
- Sustainable Development in Ireland: over 80% of targets achieved