Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I put on the record that my view of the function of this committee is to listen with an open mind and draw conclusions. We are not here to protect either neutrality or the triple lock. It was accepted by Ray Murphy that we do not qualify under customary international law as a neutral country. Professor Tonra has said that neutrality is Irish neutrality, whatever that is. Ireland is a sovereign state. That is my understanding. As a sovereign state, the argument against removing the triple lock is that we cannot be trusted to make decisions with our own troops. Is there any other state in the world that has a similar restriction placed on the government of that country with respect to the deployment of its troops? I ask that of all three witnesses.