Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have to respect the witnesses who come in. They have obviously come in from different positions and that is the reason we have them here. As a member of the committee, however, I was not aware until a half an hour ago

of Professor Tonra's involvement in lobbying. He is entitled to do so but I want to hear his point of view, even though I disagree with him on probably a lot of what he said. He made some good points but I disagree with some of what he is saying.

One point he made with which I disagree is point 18. He said that Ireland's traditional neutrality will similarly be unaffected by the proposed amendment. I am picturing the scenario, to pick up a little bit on what Deputy Connolly just referred to, where we are part of an alliance with Germany, Britain, France and those countries. They have not just sat on their hands with regard to Israel and Palestine. In some cases, they are actively supplying the weapons and materiel that are being used in the slaughter of civilians and have given other logistical and intelligence help to what I would call the terrorist State of Israel. I am picturing us being part of some ill-defined regional force with a mandate to protect international security - Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu use phrases like "international security"; I hear them at that regularly - but under what mandate would it operate? We know from previous conversations here that we would be subject to the command of one of those larger countries or the likes of NATO - we have clarified that it could be under NATO - on a mission to strengthen international security. Surely, that would affect our military neutrality. Can Professor Tonra not see the contradiction in that? It is left wide open.