James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this important matter around the issues with the protocols, terms and conditions of a memorandum of understanding signed between Ireland and Romania. I welcome the opportunity to contribute on behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence. The memorandum of understanding between Ireland and Romania, which was signed in Bucharest two weeks ago on 8 April, is policy-focused and relates to bilateral defence co-operation between both defence Ministers. The memorandum of understanding demonstrates that both countries have an agreed framework of defence engagement for the future, which we can build upon, while agreeing to fully recognise and respect our country's individual defence arrangements.

As the Senator will be aware, the war in Ukraine has dramatically changed the security dynamic in Europe, with the past two years being very significant internationally and domestically. At home, such developments nationally and internationally have provoked something of a debate on Ireland's role in international security and defence. Security and defence issues are increasingly at the very top of the EU's political agenda. For these reasons, there is undoubtedly a very strong focus on the defence challenges facing Europe and the steps required to address these.

While defence remains a national competence, our policy of military neutrality does not remove us from the global security environment or mean that we should not work closely with our fellow EU member states to address these challenges. It is necessary that Ireland takes steps towards enhancing our defence engagement with our EU member states' colleagues, where appropriate. We should be willing to identify the potential benefits to Ireland of such bilateral engagement, in particular identifying opportunities for our Defence Forces.

Our willingness to engage in such bilateral strategic discussions led to the development of the memorandum of understanding with our Romanian colleagues by the Department of Defence, in conjunction with the Defence Forces. Our agreement is an example of a shared commitment as member states to developing a positive relationship long into the future, while fully recognising the different national characteristics of both, in terms of national defence policy, and caveat it accordingly.

This memorandum of understanding is focused on bilateral defence co-operation, where feasible, and is aimed at building linkages in sharing best practice, including the terms of peacekeeping deployments. The signing of the memorandum of understanding was an opportunity to reaffirm our broad bilateral relationship and our common security challenges and experience working alongside each other, including our personal participation in European Union, NATO and UN mandated peacekeeping operations and other multinational formations. With this framework in place, our future bilateral engagement with Romania will be through strategic dialogue discussions and military staff talks that will allow for the sharing of best practice.

There are numerous areas of engagement we could potentially cover and the memorandum of understanding includes broad language around co-operation on any number of themes, including pre-deployment, training for the UN-mandated international peacekeeping operations, communications and information systems and procurement, among other topics. I hear the Senator on the lack of the presidents of uniformed military at the signing and engagement with the Houses. I will bring those concerns to the attention of the Tánaiste.