Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for having to rush to the Chamber, but I must speak in the debate on the North. I thank the two contributors for their extremely interesting presentations.

First, I overwhelmingly subscribe to what Dr. Devine said regarding the people's understanding of neutrality. Let us be clear - the people's understanding is that we do not get involved in wars and we do not wish to be involved in military alliances. That is not from a parochial basis but from the opposite basis. It is from the basis of being good internationalists who wish to side with people who may be subject to the bullying of big powers. That is really the people's understanding of neutrality and why, for example, the facilitation of the war in Iraq flies in the face of the notion the people of this country have of neutrality. That was clearly demonstrated in opinion polls that were carried out on the matter by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, PANA, and in the massive mobilisations against that war. One of the major reasons that people voted against the various EU treaties was precisely on this basis.

Dr. Devine agrees on that but what does Mr. Smyth think about it? If we wish to have a notion of neutrality that is in line with the opinions of the people, is that not the opinion of the people in the first place? Linked to that, is the refusal of the Government to define neutrality due to the fact that it knows that is what the people believe neutrality to be and it does not want it pinned down because it knows what the answer is?