Dr. Karen Devine:

I would love a referendum to be held because it would give me great research material. It should happen from the point of view of democracy because it is very clear that four out of five Irish people support neutrality and would probably, therefore, be in favour of including it in the Constitution. It would also create severe problems for the Government because we have signed up to the mutual defence clause in Article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union. This should not be confused with Article 222 of a completely different treaty - the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union - which contains a solidarity clause. They are two completely different things. It is a Government discursive strategy to confuse and conflate the two in order that it can state it has not signed up to a collective defence commitment.