Mr. Ciarán Murphy:

The Senator is correct. It does involve a surrender of sovereignty. In fact, de Valera mentioned it in the debates in 1946. When people were pushing back against him, he said that membership of any international organisation always involves a loss of sovereignty. The reference here is made to the European Union. He also lamented the fact that the P5 were setting up the rules, which everybody else would be bound by but by which they would not. That said, there is a fundamental flaw in the United Nations in that those who make the rules will not bind themselves by the rules.