Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach
Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals
2:00 am
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Of which this is a part.
Can I ask a straight question? Why will Mr. Knauer not just tell it as it is? Ireland contributes, through the EU budget, to this programme which is designed to increase the capacity of Europe in relation to munitions, including explosives, powder, shells, missiles and other capabilities to the tune of half a billion euro. Is that not a factual statement and why are we dancing around this? From the point of view of the EU Commission, do the people who are listening to this debate not deserve the unblemished truth about what has happened? If the European Commission wants this direction to happen in Europe then be proud of it and wear it as a badge of honour. There will be many people in this country who disagree with the direction but at least tell them the truth about what is happening and where their hard-earned taxpayers' money is contributing as a result of the direction that Europe has taken.
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