Gerard Craughwell (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We find ourselves in a situation where Mr. Noonan said that all power comes from the people under the Constitution. As the people voted to join the European Union, how does that in any way diminish our sovereignty? It was the people who made that decision. Add to that, the question has been raised by one or two of my colleagues with respect to putting neutrality into our Constitution. If we place neutrality in the Constitution, are we not tying the hands of future governments in what is a dynamic world that is changing all the time? We at no stage know when we are going to need to deploy troops. Kabul was a classic example of where we needed people on the ground urgently. We were not able to put them there ourselves because we did not have the transport, and when we did send people out, we sent a paltry 12.