Dr. Edward Burke:

Senator Craughwell referred to the Seanad. Other European countries and countries such as New Zealand have strengthened defence committees whereby they can get operational legal advice. I think the Oireachtas is key. I would like to see more powers for the Oireachtas, including getting advice on the rules of engagement, with the Attorney General and others talking about the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law. It is all very good for the Oireachtas to have a lot of information on that, really as much as the Government. I am not sure that has been the case in the past, for example in the case of EUFOR Chad. I hope that getting more advice on potential difficulties, legal understandings and rules of engagement is developed in the future. In terms of obligations, clearly there is a mutual assistance clause within the treaty but that is not understood to have anywhere like the strength of Article 5 of NATO. We are aligned in that there would be an expectation of assistance in the way that we have provided assistance to the Ukrainian military, not necessarily in lethal aid but we do lots of things for them in terms of military hospitals, etc.

There would be an expectation of assistance. That does not mean that Irishmen and Irishwomen would be deploying to a warzone in the morning, far from it; but there is such an expectation.

As I said earlier, there are different definitions of neutrality. We could talk to a Swiss Government lawyer about why Switzerland cannot join the EU. We would be told that its neutrality is the reason. In some ways, there is a total lack of clarity about working definitions of "neutrality" both internationally and in Ireland. It has become a sentiment, and sentiments sometimes do not lead to good policy. We need to work a little more to explain how we marry this sense of being not politically neutral but militarily neutral with the fact that we are in favour of the EU helping Ukraine to defend itself. These are things that the Irish public and other EU member states do not understand well. We have tried to be a little too clever with some of these things and not straight enough with the Irish public about where we are in terms of European security and threats to Irish democracy in 2025.