Professor John Maguire:

There is a big problem in that regard. I wrote this in Defending Peace in 1999, when we joined the partnership for peace without a referendum. It was updated for Nice II, where I went into the whole question in the chapter "We Don't Heed no Declaration: We Demand A Protocol!". It is interesting that after that, Irish Governments learned the difference between a protocol and a declaration during Brexit. All I can say is that I and so many others have sat in debates with government people who say a declaration is fine. Dr. Devine pointed out that the declaration is registered as an international treaty, which is important. Either Governments realised they were leaving a loophole or they were incompetent. In either case, our Constitution and the jurisdiction of Article 29 is in deep crisis.

I will outline something I stated in my submission. It is very difficult in the current climate for a citizen to talk about Article 6, but we are the citizens, as is each of the members. It is a post-imperial Constitution that states the final appeal rests with the people on matters of national policy. We were promised - I was personally promised - that this was safe and that the triple lock would not be touched unless the Government came back to us. This is a dagger to the Constitution and the democratic order we claim to be promoting around the world.

I will make one more tiny point. The Deputy asked about our image. Ireland's special operations force, IRL-SOF, is being talked about. Have we learned nothing on this island in a hundred years? I am in favour of IRL-USP, Ireland's unique selling point, which is our ability to fulfil the UN Charter based on our Constitution. I feel passionate about that. Sorry, I get a bit hot under the collar. You can hose me down now and then.