Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence

Foreign Affairs Council and UN Security Council: Engagement with Minister for Foreign Affairs

Photo of Gerard CraughwellGerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not going to speak about defence other than to thank the Minister for delivering €500 million in funding for the period up to 2028. I am waiting for the fine detail but I congratulate the Minister on that. He has put a lot into it. I know I give him a hard time now and then but that is the nature of politics. Credit where credit is due.

I have a few questions about the Minister's role in foreign affairs. Now that we are talking about primary radar, has the constitutionality of overflights by the RAF ever been considered by the Cabinet? Do we know where we stand on that?

We have provided non-lethal support to Ukraine by means of flak jackets, vehicles and the like. What is the big deal about not supplying weapons? Ukraine is a neutral country and we have claimed some degree of neutrality for decades. At the end of the day, the Minister for Foreign Affairs will have a massive role to play in explaining to the Irish people what neutrality is, what military alignment is and what being part of some sort of military organisation would involve. A flotilla should be sent in to force the opening of the ports and allow grain to come out of Ukraine to stop world famine. Where would the Minister stand on that?

The issue of Georgia has already been mentioned, so I will not bring it up again.

With respect to alignment, military or otherwise, the issue of cybersecurity is now the greatest threat to modern economies. Whether we like it or not, we are going to have to align ourselves with nation states across the EU, and probably NATO members, in order to agree the sharing of information to protect vital resources in the cyberspace. There is a lot more I would like to talk about in the area of defence but that is for another day. I will wait until the Minister makes his final announcement tomorrow.

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