Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The American military are not a patch on inventing language that means the opposite when it comes to the EU bureaucracy - smart and inclusive growth. In that regard, the so-called security research, which includes large grants to armaments companies in the European Union to produce weapons of mass destruction, is provided for here. I ask the witnesses to bring my concern about and total objection to that to the attention of the Government. I would point out, and the witnesses might be able to clarify further, that two weeks ago my colleague Paul Murphy, MEP, in an exchange with Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn, asked how Horizon 2020 would work or the current research funding. Incredibly, in response she stated:

I think it is important to realise that the areas in which research funding is provided is civilian in nature at all times. That does not mean of course, however, that funding which is given aspects of security may not be used in any other ways, but we don't have control over that.

My colleague pointed out how two Israeli arms manufacturers, for example, got research funding from the European Union. I accept it is not the witnesses' business to comment or make a judgment on policy but it is mine and I am saying that as far as Horizon 2020 is concerned, I believe the view of a huge majority of the Irish people should be that there would be no further research into the creation of weapons of mass destruction, which is what this is all about.