Ms Niamh Ní Bhriain:

There was no transparency in the process. As I said, it was the most antidemocratic and undemocratic of processes whereby those involved arrived at this €450 billion as part of the overall €800 billion. In terms of transparency generally, an Irish woman was in the EU Ombudsman's office for ten years. She left her post at the end of last year. It has been filled by someone else. During her tenure, she spoke very clearly about problems she had trying to get documentation from the European Commission. She was constantly being stonewalled. That has been documented, and her office has spoken about the matter on many occasions. In particular, she raised a concern around the lack of transparency regarding what is called defence but what is actually a military and war industry. She raised concerns around the European Defence Fund and the people involved in assessing who would be able to access that. Usually, one would need to know who those people were because of a potential conflict of interests, but it was not being made public. She requested information on the identity of the people overseeing the assessment and determination of whether projects got funding or not. I think it was in relation to the European Defence Fund, but it may have been the Act in Support of Ammunition Production. I am not sure, but the problem was the same, namely that the people were not being named.

The way these funds came about was in the context of the group of personalities. I am not sure if the committee is aware of that group. Basically, in 2015 the European Commission installed what it called a group of personalities comprising 16 people, nine of whom were directly connected to the arms industry. I cannot name the companies here but members can find out about them because all of the information is available online. Nine of those people are from the arms industry. They advised the European Commission that it should invest more in arms. That is how we came to have pilot funds that were, for the first time ever, funding the research and development of weaponry. Then we moved on from there to funding the actual production, which is what we were talking about here 18 months ago. Those people are from arms companies, but they are embedded in the political decision-making that is taking place in Brussels. They shape the political decisions. Once the money begins to flow from those decisions and once they are implemented, their companies benefit. Again, I cannot name the companies. However, we have reported on the companies that have sought funding from European Union funds that they were instrumental in creating. The European Commission is not naming the people who are involved in assessing the funds, which is very problematic. The EU Ombudsman's office has called it out. Maybe it is changing now or will change down the line. There is a big problem with transparency.

On competitiveness, we are seeing massive deregulation. It is a bonanza for corporate power. Again, it comes back to who is making the decisions and who is at the decision-making table. It is corporations that are not coming at this from the perspective of the public good; their motive is profit.

On Horizon funding, I have looked at a lot of Horizon Europe projects and lots of Israeli entities continue to receive money from that initiative.

I agree with the Deputy that members of the Irish Defence Forces should be paid a decent wage for the work they are doing. I participated in the neutrality roadshow. We went around Ireland and met with hundreds of people around the country. We had people come up to us who have family members in the Defence Forces who cannot speak up themselves. In Kenmare, for example, a mother came up to me. She was terrified. She asked who would keep our children safe if the triple lock is gone and they are sent off to war. She spoke about the conditions that the peacekeepers operate under. They should be getting a decent wage. If we have money to buy fighter jets, why can we not pay soldiers a decent wage?

There was one other question, but I cannot remember-----