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

There are two issues I have big problems with. There is the content, but before that is the process through which we make this decision. It is one thing to answer parliamentary questions, but it is only in the last few days that Members have been told that a vote was to take place on joining and participating in PESCO. Is the Minister of State seriously trying to suggest to me that the public is aware, for example, of the detail of the 20 different commitments? Let us forget about euphemisms like PESCO. We are getting involved in an advanced military co-operation across Europe. Is the Minister of State going to tell me, with a straight face, that the public knows about what the Dáil is deciding on this Thursday? The public does not know. The public does not know the details of this and does not know the implications. One of the reasons we protested so strongly is because civil society groups, NGOs with an interest in this area and possibly representatives of the Defence Forces should be in here giving testimony to the committee as to what all of this means. It is not good enough for the Minister of State to say one thing and us to say another; we need civil society actors and other stakeholders giving testimony to the committee. This is not going to happen. We are not taking a formal decision and there is not an adequate public debate. It is not satisfactory for the Government to tell Members, just at the beginning of this week, that there is to be a vote on this issue. The matter was not even discussed at the business management meeting that is supposed to order the business of the Dáil last week. How can the Minister of State seriously say that this is acceptable? Why was this matter not signalled at the business management committee?

I have other questions about the substance of the-----