Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

One of the things that Albania has to do to join the European Union is to comply with the norms and standards that are expected of member states. The authorities are doing a lot of work to try to change things in Albania. They are more advanced than other countries. There is a lot of work to do. There is no doubt about that but that work is happening. We are quite satisfied with the progress there. Albania is not ready to join just yet, but it is on a path that can work for it.

I referred to principles-based pragmatism at the IIEA event last week in the context of our defence policy. A defence policy is a marker of an independent country and how it defends itself. We have to defend ourselves. We have to have an army that, as the Deputy mentioned, is competent, which it is. It needs to be capable. That capability depends on equipment and personnel. It needs more equipment and personnel. We are characterised by military neutrality, which, in general, means that we are not members of military alliances. We are not going to be members of NATO. We cannot legally join a common European defence. The principles that I referred to, in terms of principles-based pragmatism, are direct from the Constitution. Article 29 provides that our foreign relations are based on peace and friendship among the nations, respect for international law and so on. That is where we are, but we have to be pragmatic as well. We have been pragmatic over the past number of decades without in any way impinging on our neutrality. Good examples of this include our missions abroad under the EU, in Kosovo under NATO, and famously in Lebanon with UNIFIL. There are many other examples as well. That is my vision of the Defence Forces. They are there fundamentally to protect this country and they operate based on the principles in the Constitution. They have always done that and there is nothing controversial about that but sometimes it can be mischaracterised.

Our neutrality is widely respected in the sense that other countries understand where we are coming from. We are not the only neutral country in the European Union. Sweden and Finland are no longer officially neutral. Austria, Cyprus and Malta still are. Every country that is or was neutral had or has different reasons for it. It was almost a condition of Austria's independence. Cyprus has a situation relating to territory. Even when Sweden was neutral, it joined military exercises with Britain and America. It was not quite the same as some of the other countries. Finland has always had a strong defence force because it needs to defend its territory. Neutrality is respected by other member states. The particular characteristics of certain member states are always referred in conclusions of Council meetings. They mean us and it is always mentioned. It will be mentioned at the defence conclusions at the European Council next week. However, and members will find this when they meet people from around the European Union and they will have their own answers as they are from different parties, they will be asked: what is Ireland doing to defend itself? We have a good story to tell. Separately from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the previous Government decided to start spending more on our military as we needed to get to a foundational level of what we require. Some of the outworkings of this were seen this week when the Tánaiste announced a contract for the provision of sonar and publicly looking for radar in order that we have a military that can operate and can see what is happening. which at the moment it cannot.

The simplification agenda is widespread in the European Union. There has been a feeling that regulation has gone too far. Ireland's approach is that it is not in favour of deregulation but we are in favour of better regulation and reducing red tape, which will drive economic growth. We do not want to do that at the cost of workers or the environment and certainly not international development. I am confident that we can get packages on simplification that will help our economies while not threatening why we regulate.

There has simply been a feeling that, in some cases, regulation has gone too far and there is too much of a burden, particularly on small and medium enterprises, and there is work to reduce this. Much of this work will come before the General Affairs Council in the coming months and we will see how it goes. All of the changes have to be decided by the member states and the European Parliament. There are debates to be had on various issues among European parliamentarians and member states. We will see how that debate goes. There are a wide range of measures in various sectors of society, and we will certainly take on board the representations that have been made on it. I would say that, if any of us meet businesses at present, they are all asking about this and they see it as necessary to be competitive in a global sense.