Ms Ellie Kinney:

If you look historically, points of incredibly high military spending are not points of peace. A lot of work is done following periods like the Cold War to reduce military spending. As I said in my opening remarks, with the current projected pattern of global military spending at a rate that is exponentially rising at the moment, by 2035 we could stand at $6.6 trillion, which is nearly five times the level of the end of the Cold War. Military spending is rising dramatically now. We are facing the most violent conflict we have had since the Second World War. What we are in now is an arms race, ultimately. It is where we have ended up. We know from history that arms races are not productive. Peaceful times require interventions around disarmament and a real push towards multilateralism to be able to strengthen international trust in international institutions like the UN and other bodies which, we know from history, are the path to peace while a militarised response is not. The militarised mindset begets a militarised response. When we approach increasing conflict with an increasingly militarised response, we end up in a repeating cycle of a lack of investment in multilateralism and development, increased spending on arms and worsening climate impacts. You also do not have development so you are in an endless cycle.

Ireland has a history of being vocal for peace and disarmament. If you think about this as a cycle, there are states that can disrupt the cycle and there are states that can take a stance. This is a really key moment for Ireland to stand up and be one of those states.