Ms Lynn Boylan:

In response to Senator Kyne's first question, the political party I represent, Sinn Féin, supports the level of ambition 2 investment in our Defence Forces. There is a very big difference between investing in the Defence Forces as a neutral force and then throwing our lot in with a European Union that has different interests, backgrounds and cultural context. It is also very different to using critical EU funding. For example Ireland is a net contributor to cohesion funding and that will be used for military expenditure. That is denying developing countries the development and peace programmes Ireland benefited from. That will now be used for military expenditure. It is also deeply problematic that there is no oversight of the expenditure. There is a clear distinction. Yes, invest in our Defence Forces but we do not need to lose our neutrality to do that.

In regard to the Security Council veto, I note the veto has never been used by Russia, Britain or the US against a peacekeeping mission. We are talking about something that could hypothetically happen but has never happened. There is also the fact a General Assembly resolution can allow for a peacekeeping mission to go ahead. As I said in my opening statement, I support UN reform. Ireland can play a major role in reforming the UN but now is not the time to be dismissing the UN or flagging concerns around it when it has been undermined daily by the US, Israel and some members within the European Union. We need to defend the UN because there is no plan B.