Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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There are a couple of things. First of all, let me be absolutely clear that the overall view on neutrality, which I quite support, is that it is something to which people have a genuine emotional attachment. I just said there is an element there, to be clear.

The reality of development aid, which I was involved in for two and a half years, is if we put 100% of the Irish budget into it, we would not really make an impact on a global scale in relation to what is happening in terms of the superpowers and in terms of what happens with money. We do not have the scale of those countries. Whether we go to 2% or whatever, we are not going to be a superpower. It might make us feel fuzzy and good to say we did not spend it on weapons, but we spent it on development aid. What it will actually do in the real world is make very little impact. On a geo-world level, it is what the main powers, including the European Union, can deliver in terms of budgets that actually make a difference.

I would be quite happy, as someone who passionately believes in development aid, if we were ever willing to spend 2% or anything more, but I mention the level of impact that would have in terms of what that means. I know it would sound like an awful lot of money to Irish people, but in terms of what you see and what is needed on the ground, and what will be the exponential growth in what is needed on the ground over the next couple of decades, it would not do anything.

For us, it is important to recognise there are two things. There is our own position in relation to neutrality and we have had a lot of discussion on that here. I also think there is a European Union position in relation to neutrality. That is really what I was addressing, because this a European affairs committee and I want to primarily focus on that. For Europe, that is going to be its biggest question. That cannot be resolved by individual member states continuing, collectively, with their different views. It must be resolved by a willingness within the European Union to move to a position. What Dr. McDonagh said on this is very important because I think Europe has a very poor record on foreign policy in some areas.

Macron is a great example of this. One day he is passionately pro-European and when he wakes up the next day, he is passionately pro-French. Sometimes the two foreign policies they are trying to bring together do not actually mesh. He gets away with that quite a bit, but that is the problem.

If Europe wants to continue to do what it is trying to do in being a player, we are all going to have to make some big choices and part of that now will completely be around where Europe will be with the ability to defend itself and where it will sit within those. There are other political situations. We have it in Hungary at this moment in time, we have a potential for it in changes of Government, we have it in Slovakia and we have it in various things where there is no longer a 100% homogenous EU position. That is becoming a greater problem for the union to deal with.

Senator Craughwell wishes to speak.