Ms Lynn Boylan:

I go back to the point that the wider EU context needs to be taken into account. I keep using the term "triple lock". It is a firewall for any Government at the EU Council table to be able to point to and try to resist the pressure that it will come under. The pressure is enormous. We have a European Commission led by woman who is actively arming a genocide and ignoring the International Court of Justice and her own treaties in terms of defence and military expenditure.

If we are joining EU missions, they are very often EU missions led by a former colony of a region. That does not guarantee neutrality in terms of our peacekeepers. There are vested agendas in EU missions compared with UN missions. In respect of the broader context, my view is that we are looking at a European Union that has set its mind in one direction and one direction only, namely, abolishing unanimity at the Council level and where militarisation is the only show in town. Every EU fund is being made available to facilitate the arms industry and prop it up. Irish taxpayers' money is being used for that. The only defence we have against coming under pressure is the triple lock, unless we enshrine neutrality in the Constitution.

It is a unique position but I am telling the committee the direction of travel in the EU. I want to know whether the Irish public are happy that our money, which we pay in - we are a net contributor to the European Union - is being used to fund the arms industry, an arms industry that, is in effect, is making record-breaking profits.