Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Gilmore said we needed to engage more on European issues such as defence and he mentioned peace work, humanitarian aid and the promotion of soft power in EU policy. In the Italian Senate two and a half years ago, Ms Mogherini spoke about closing down Operation Mare Nostrum and said we needed to stop picking up refugees in the Mediterranean as it only encouraged them to come. When a vessel not fit for the open seas overturned and 800 people were drowned, however, causing a public outcry, the EU changed its position. Many hundreds had died silently, however, not in the public gaze, and the EU has no interest in humanitarian aid. More provocatively and dangerously, Ms Mogherini said she aimed to ensure the EU replaced the US on our own borders and that the EU would be able to intervene as the US had on our borders. Mr. Gilmore will have seen the US intervention on Europe's borders and in the Middle East, which has had disastrous consequences. Such an aim, by the head of European foreign policy, is not one to which we should subscribe. I am concerned that Mr. Gilmore is saying we need to abandon neutrality in light of the UK departure. We disagree with the EU in many areas and agree in others but the drift towards militarisation is of huge concern. Operation Mare Nostrum was not pursued from humanitarian concerns but public pressure.

In respect of the Good Friday Agreement, the Taoiseach has spoken of the need for unifying Ireland and has said the EU needs to prepare for a united Ireland. There have been statements and press coverage since January and, following a meeting of heads of Government, it was announced that it would be provided for in the same way as German reunification was provided for. What does Mr. Gilmore believe the Government should be doing on this issue? Members of the Ulster Defence Regiment have contacted me and others to ask me what will happen. While this is the main aim of most political parties in the State under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, Brexit now makes the economic argument. There are data on how farmers who receive EU peace funding will be affected, and the people in Northern Ireland who voted to stay in the EU will be directly affected by a result which they had no control over. Without an assembly they will not have a say over what happens in the future. What should we do about this? I have read a lot about the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland from 1967 to 1970 and one author pointed out that not one single civil servant in the Irish Government was engaged in the issue of Northern Ireland in the 1960s. That was to our detriment. Instead of engaging on the civil rights issues with Britain we entirely ignored it, hoping that nothing would happen, but we all know the consequences of this lack of policy in the area. When former members of the Ulster Defence Regiment are asking questions the Government needs to have some form of policy on the longer-term issue.