Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Devine for the very thought provoking presentation. My basic question is whether Irish neutrality is the emperor's new clothes. Has economic expediency taken precedence over neutrality? What is the ongoing impact of international trade agreements between the EU and other blocs such as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, and the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, which has been shelved, the types of deals we are seeing and the special deal between the EU and Israel? We seem to be able to turn a blind eye to Irish companies trading in military goods with other countries, which somehow does not impinge on neutrality even though such military goods are being used in theatres of war.

The other question is on independent thinking. Dr. Devine's analysis of the media is very interesting but in terms of her analysis of academia, is all the EU funding being allocated to Irish academic institutions colouring the discourse around Irish foreign policy?