Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Let me put it this way. Certain people would now like to see greater movement on military co-operation and even Ireland moving away from being non-aligned. Whatever people's views in that regard, however, my difficulty and fear is that a line would be sold which states the EU is moving solidly towards being a military alliance and that perception then becomes part of a negotiating gambit in the talks between the Ukrainians and Russians. I refer to this aspect as being something that could be used in that context. As the Minister of State said himself, it was vital that we indicated we are open to Ukraine joining the EU, and we do not want to do anything that could possibly be detrimental to such a development in future.