Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an gCathaoirleach as ucht an ainmniúcháin don phost atá aici. I congratulate her on her nomination as Cathaoirleach of this committee and I look forward to working with her over the next number of years, as others said. I certainly welcome her emphasis on the men and women of our Defence Forces, who were mentioned at the start, and regarding the triple lock and our very important neutrality. Neutrality is really important to all of us Irish people and we really need a very clear debate on where we stand, particularly in the changing global context of where we are at at the moment in respect of these matters. I agree with Senator Craughwell's proposition that we should get some professional advice regarding the triple lock. Hopefully, such professional advice would be objective and not be politically swayed one way or the other so that we can make an informed decision. There is a lot of misinformation about neutrality. It is a function of our democracy, unfortunately, that this misinformation has come about.

I came to the committee room this morning for my first committee meeting as a first-time committee member and as a newly-elected Deputy full of enthusiasm for this whole area. Unfortunately, Senator Clonan, has sucked the life out of that with his very realistic painting of the picture of where we are at with our Defence Forces and our national security. We certainly have a huge amount of work to do as a committee. As others said, the first thing we have to do is expand our remit as much as we possibly can. I am happy to work with other members in that regard.