Professor John Maguire:

If I pass them around, will that be okay? This is the first document, A Force for Good, produced by AFRI. It asks if we have a rational basis for the decisions we are taking when we have a commission that has said things that are examples of complacent thinking. The report was not designed to be read. Do we really want a commission which tells us that the Defence Forces should start recruiting in isolated and disadvantaged areas? That is what is stated, and I quote that in my critique in A Force for Good. That is what is stated.

There is a section in the document on armaments and the environment, which is directly relevant to what we are talking about today. It is lamentable. I know I am going out on a limb here but I want to meet people and argue this point because I could be wrong. The emphasis in that section is on the problems that climate change poses for the Defence Forces.

The phrase "the military world" is used explicitly in our defence Green Paper and NATO is name-checked as the standard setter of the military world. There is only one glancing reference to the fact that the military world is one of the world's major polluters. It destroys and poisons worlds on all sides. We are not picking one side or another.