Mr. Stephen Kelly:

I thank the committee very much for inviting me here. The Peace and Neutrality Alliance was established was established almost 30 years ago to advocate the right of the Irish people to their own independent foreign policy with positive neutrality as its key component. We advocate a constitutional amendment to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution and for a Danish-type protocol to exclude Ireland from further militarisation of the EU.

We have had both successes and defeats over those years. One of the key successes was both in 2002 and 2009 securing an agreement that the Lisbon and Nice referendums would only be passed if the triple lock remained in place. We strongly oppose the proposed removal of the triple lock, representing in our view a reneging on these solemn commitments. We argue that doing so without a further referendum would risk being unconstitutional.

We are gravely concerned that there is no meaningful limit on where Irish troops could be sent under the proposed new legislation. This is particularly worrying given the ever-more unpredictable and unstable nature of the world we find ourselves in. We completely reject that the Dáil or Government self-certifying its compliance with international law would be an adequate safeguard. The move to abolish the triple lock is based on a caricature of the UN Security Council.

In fact, far from being a deadlocked, veto-riven entity, between 2020 and 2024, 264 out of 284 resolutions voted on at the council were passed, with no permanent member casting a negative vote.

I will finish with a quote from Éamon De Valera when addressing the League of Nations in Geneva in 1936:

All the small States can do, if the statesmen of the greater States fail in their duty, is resolutely to determine that they will not become the tools of any great Power and that they will resist with whatever strength they may possess every attempt to force them into a war against their will.

I thank the committee very much and I am very happy to take questions.