Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming here today. I can only imagine how demanding their schedules are flying over and back. To give up an afternoon to come here is very much appreciated. As Mr. Andrews said, nobody else has a triple lock; it is unique to Ireland. Nobody else has an Arc de Triomphe except Paris and nobody else has an Empire State Building. The Arc de Triomphe is probably kind of useless but I like it. I like our triple lock. Maybe its usefulness is under question. I accept the reasons around interrogating its usefulness or otherwise at the moment. My concern is the Bill does not amend it, it removes it completely. In that context, would Mr. Andrews support, like other neutral states like Switzerland or Austria, if we dispense with the triple lock, that we should have an explicit statement of military neutrality put into the Constitution as a backstop? Military experts who came to the committee on Tuesday, namely, my former colleagues, General O'Brien, General Brennan and Colonel Doyle, agreed that in the absence of a Security Council mandate, any likely future mission Irish troops would be involved in, by whatever mechanism, will be peace enforcement or war fighting. They agreed with that definition, that it is war fighting. Given the size of the contingent the Irish could deploy, which the military experts said would be around 300 troops, we will always be under the command of somebody else.

Section 17A(2) of the Defence Act 1954 as amended by the Defence (Amendment) Act 2021, states "In accordance with this Act, the Minister may delegate to a Force Commander the operational control [which is military command] of a contingent, or member, of the Defence Forces." Section 17A(4)(c) states a delegation will:

in so far as is necessary for the efficient operation of a mission, provide that each member of the Defence Forces assigned to an international force led by a Force Commander shall comply with every lawful order issued to him or her by a member of the international force in his or her military chain of command, subject to any exclusion as may be [under the mission parameters].

It also states they will come under military discipline, subject to military law, of whatever force commander is there. How does Mr. Andrews feel about that? Does he agree or disagree that this will fundamentally change the nature, profile and scope of Irish involvement overseas? Does he agree or disagree that is at variance with the Irish public's understanding of our peacekeeping tradition?

In 2022, Russia's criminal invasion of Ukraine happened. It was an obscenity - murdering, raping, theft and looting. It is an obscenity, there is no other word for it. Putin is a war criminal and the Russian forces are engaged in Russian acts. I have attended security briefings at the CIA in Langley, the Pentagon and many other places.

They tell me that half of Russia's armoured fleet has been destroyed. Half of their armoured fighting vehicles, tanks, have been destroyed in Ukraine. The Russian forces are bogged down. They have not managed to achieve any of its war aims. They did not collapse the regime. The only thing they have managed to do is establish a narrow land corridor from Luhansk and Donetsk, down to the Crimean Peninsula. In Europe, I am hearing statements to the effect that Russia will be ready to mount a successful ground invasion against a NATO member state by 2029. We had a German chief of staff say Russia is now producing 1,500 main battle tanks per annum. The fact of the matter is Russia can produce about 200 tanks per annum and it struggles to do that. What it is doing is trying to refurbish old T-60 variant battle tanks that are 60 years old. Does Mr. Andrews believe the Russians are capable of successfully mounting a ground invasion against any NATO member state in Europe in the next four years?

Finally, Mr Andrews is at the beating heart of Brussels. From the distance I am out from it, what I hear is moral panic and groupthink. We had a threat posed by the Soviets. We had nuclear missiles pointed at every capital city in Europe. We had Russian and Warsaw Pact troops throughout central and eastern Europe. What weapons system brought that down? It was our social and economic success. How does Mr. Andrews feel about that sense of moral panic or groupthink? Is it something we ought to consider?