Professor Andrew Cottey:

I can go first. I will respond on three issues. It is interesting that the Deputy uses the language of non-alignment, which as the Deputy will be aware, the Government would not use. Non-alignment and neutrality or not necessarily the same thing. One comment I will make is that neutrality is extremely difficult to define. There is no clear or agreed definition in Ireland or internationally. As a consequence, what is or is not neutrality and what elements of EU security and defence co-operation are and are not compatible with neutrality is a difficult question to answer because we do not have a clear definition of neutrality. That is a general comment.

Ireland is a small state and small states need partners and friends to address their security challenges. In that context, the EU and the EU's member states are Ireland's key partners and friends. Two areas illustrate that clearly. Cybersecurity is one. Purely national cyber defences are not adequate and Ireland probably needs to do more as regards partnering and working with others who can enhance cyber defences. Another issue I will draw the committee's attention to is the issue of seabed cables that carry the transatlantic Internet connections and so on. How are we to monitor and protect those? There is no easy answer to that question but the one matter that is clear in my head is that Ireland cannot address its responsibilities in that area alone. I would argue as a small state providing for its security and defence, Ireland needs partners, and the EU is the key framework for that.

On the Deputy's point about strategic autonomy, he had it spot-on at the end when he said we need to avoid a retreat into protectionism. The balance has not been worked out.

The EU, the US and others are struggling with this issue day by day and month by month and with how, on the one hand, to protect themselves from vulnerabilities in economics, trade, technologies and raw materials, while, on the other, maintaining a reasonably open, free trade and globalised set of policies. There is no easy or simple answer to this question. The big minds in Brussels and, equally, the people in the government in Washington D.C. are struggling to work out the answers to this question. As I said in my opening remarks, though, this is something the Government could do more thinking on to work out what is the specific Irish position and approach and how this will link into the wider European approach on this issue.