Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure why the Government is ratifying these SOFAs now. Can the Minister of State give me examples where the Defence Forces have suffered in previous instances due to these SOFAs not being ratified?

A WikiLeaks cable from 15 December 2009 showed the Department of Defence was considering ratifying them in 2010 but was concerned about the element dealing with foreign troops on Irish soil. In a Wikileaks cable from 2009, an assistant secretary in the Department of Defence, Ciaran Murphy, tells a US political officer of Ireland's hopes to ratify an EU SOFA and a NATO-PfP SOFA in 2010, which obviously did not happen. Ratifying these two SOFAs now also opens up the possibility that Ireland may receive requests for foreign troops to transit on route to operations. The briefing note supplied by the Department of the Taoiseach for the debate states that ratifying these SOFAs would not impact our traditional policy of military neutrality, if it exists, and that there was no situation in which a SOFA could result in Ireland agreeing to receive and base foreign troops on its territory, including forces in transit, as there is a constitutional prohibition on this. This is not true. There is no constitutional prohibition on foreign forces transiting, although Dáil approval is required, as per Article 28.3 of the Constitution, which states: "The State shall not participate in any war save with the assent of Dáil Éireann".

Referring back to the 2009 cable in regard to a request for US troops to transit through Shannon under a SOFA, the assistant secretary in the Department stated:

...while the Irish constitution does not forbid foreign troops transiting through Ireland or coming for ship visits, as U.S. troops do, a SOFA that included provisions for transiting troops would require legislative approval, since the constitution gives the Irish parliament authority over military forces. Getting legislation approving troop transits, and giving U.S. troops transiting Ireland any sort of special status ... would entail a major public debate that would shine a spotlight on the fact that U.S. troops are transiting Ireland on the way to Afghanistan; it would awaken the opposition of an Irish populace that is very zealous of Ireland's neutrality.

How interesting. The cable summarily ends with the following line: "U.S. troops transiting to Afghanistan and Iraq through Shannon airport in Ireland will continue to be handled informally." This cable highlights how consecutive Governments since 2003 have been able to get around the provision of Article 28.3 concerning Dáil approval by stating that its use does not amount to participation in a war and that the arrangement is on an informal basis for the past 65 years. We are neutral in name only. The ratification of these two SOFAs is another example of this. It is not right to pretend that they will not affect our neutrality or that there is no possibility of foreign troops transiting through as a result of the ratification. Why does the Government not just be straight and tell the people how it is, because this is not true?

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