Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

I welcome the witnesses. I will start off by stating once again that the triple lock is a red herring and that we should be spending our time on other things to do with the Defence Forces.

I will give the witnesses a definition of sovereignty. Sovereignty refers to the supreme authority and power of a state or governing body to rule itself without interference from outside sources. In politics, it is the backbone of national independence. A sovereign country controls its own laws, borders, economy and foreign relations. First, do the witnesses regard Ireland as a sovereign state when it is in some way subservient to the United Nations Security Council when it comes to the deployment of its own troops?

Second, I would like to see some empirical evidence of how the triple lock interacts with neutrality, given that Ray Murphy and Ben Tonra have both agreed that Ireland does not meet the criteria as set down in international law with respect to neutrality. Ms Ní Bhriain spoke about returning from missions with trauma. Our soldiers return from missions with trauma already. Jadotville is a case in point. The soldiers who came back from Jadotville are still suffering the trauma they went through.

As for the final point I would like the witnesses to address, Ms Ní Bhriain spoke about pressure from without. We are not a member of NATO, we are not a member of any military alliance, yet our Taoiseach yesterday was told by the Japanese Prime Minister that Japan is deeply concerned at the lack of defence in this country, particularly when it comes to Internet cables. Mr. Kelly said we are not under attack from Russia. Russia is just the common enemy, it seems, but we were attacked by Russia and it cost our Health Service Executive millions of euro to put that right.

It strikes me that the triple lock is a hamstring for the Government. Why is it that when the witnesses advocate for a referendum, they do not advocate for one to allow for all Houses of the Oireachtas to have a say on where our troops are deployed and, when deployed, or if a question arises to deploy them, they set the bar so high in that referendum that it makes it very difficult for a country to just send troops away wherever it wants? It is my view that the three Houses - the President, the Seanad and the Dáil - should be the people deciding where our troops are deployed.