Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to support Deputy Seán Crowe and Sinn Féin this morning on Second Stage of the Thirty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution (Neutrality) Bill 2013. Almost 12 years ago, my Labour Party colleagues and I supported Sinn Féin’s neutrality Bill and I reiterate that support today. The principle of the Bill is the insertion of the principle of neutrality into the Irish Constitution so that the Irish State cannot participate in any war, assist foreign states in any way to prepare for or conduct such a war, save with the assent of Dáil Éireann. The Bill reiterates that the Constitution will maintain a policy of non-membership of military alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO. By its nature the Bill, if passed, gives an opportunity to the Irish people to reaffirm Ireland’s long history of neutrality.

Given the long history of oppression of our people by British ruling elites it is striking how deeply ingrained in our history is our attachment to the principle of neutrality. Over the two centuries before 1922 almost every year some part of our island was claimed by the British authorities and subject to martial law. Even during Ireland’s period of legislative independence, under the College Green Parliament, when we had no government, the Irish Parliament debated in 1793 and 1794 whether that parliament would support England’s war with Spain. The father of Irish republicanism, Theobald Wolfe Tone vigorously opposed that war which then spread into a huge continental war for 25 years against the principles of the French Revolution.

The terrible deaths and enduring trauma of the First World War and the War of Independence, between 1914 and 1923, left an indelible mark on at least 50,000 Irish families and a revulsion for militarism and violence. The founder of my tradition, the social democrat movement, or modern unions, James Connolly, bitterly opposed the First World War and was devastated when the German Social Democratic Party, SPD, supported the German dynasty and the capitalist elite going to war with Britain. Connolly wanted working people in all European countries if they had to go to war to turn their guns on the ruling classes who led them into a holocaust of perhaps 80 million or 100 million dead over those decades. Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith also tried desperately to include Irish neutrality in the negotiations with Lloyd George in late 1921.

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After 1922 it is notable that Cumman na nGaedheal, Fine Gael, never seemed fully committed to Irish neutrality and its best orator, James Dillon, wanted Ireland to intervene on Britain's side in the Second World War. It is often said that we were neutral on the British side during that war, but Éamon de Valera and his Government, like counties such as Switzerland and Sweden, successfully maintained a policy of non-attachment to the two belligerent sides. We recall the great heroism of the Irish merchant marine during that time in keeping the country supplied and the role of the infant Aer Lingus, which the Government is now prepared to flog off, to maintain our aviation connection during those years.

Éamon de Valera's famous response to Churchill that Britain's necessity would become a moral code forcing Ireland into an unwanted war remains a classic text on the ethical basis for neutrality. Unfortunately, as we heard again today, de Valera's Fianna Fáil heirs have not been committed in the way as he was to that fundamental principle. In the past two decades there has been a growing apprehension that the principle of national neutrality has been steadily eroded on the basis of growing EU and UN commitments and Ireland's logistical support for American military operations, especially through the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.

The Taoiseach, in typical Fine Gael style, has stated, "[T]he truth is, Ireland is not neutral. We are merely unaligned." The 1996 White Paper on foreign policy stated that Ireland's policy of military neutrality would not be changed without a referendum, but that document advocated that Ireland would join NATO's partnership for peace and participate in missions of the Western European Union, although it states that we should not join NATO or the Western European Union. Despite our policy of neutrality after 9/11, Ireland was involved in a NATO-led ISAF mission to Afghanistan through the provision of military instructors. The Fianna Fáil-led Government before 2011 - the former Minister for Defence, Deputy Willie O'Dea is not in the Chamber - signed the country up to NATO's partnership for peace, which is often seen as a first step to NATO membership. He negotiated Ireland's entry into EU battle groups.

These developments took place in spite of Article 29.4.9° of the Constitution, which was inserted during the campaigns on the Nice treaty in 2004 and the Lisbon treaty in 2009. The Minister referred to the triple lock. Article 29 stipulates that Ireland should not adopt any decision of the European Council to establish a common defence where that common defence would include the State. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain and the decision to permit the US airforce to refuel at Shannon Airport, it is estimated that, as Deputy Mick Wallace said, some 2.5 million US troops have passed through Shannon Airport on their way to and from the terrible conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The former Taoiseach, former Deputy Bertie Ahern, and his successors were repeatedly unsuccessfully questioned in the House about the use of Shannon Airport and the failure of Irish Governments to invigilate US flights and ensure prisoners on their way to rendition and possible torture were not passing through an Irish airport. As Deputy Higgins famously said, the questioning was like playing handball against a haystack. As John Lannon and Shannonwatch observed, the UN Security Council did not authorise the military attacks on Afghanistan or Iraq in 2001 or 2003.

I was one of the more than 100,000 citizens, as was, I understand, the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, who marched in the city against the Iraq war. For most sentient observers, the regime in Saudi Arabia was the foreign power mainly involved in the appalling and murderous attacks on 4,000 US citizens in New York and Virginia in September 2001, yet the Bush Administration closely associated with that medieval regime and took no action whatsoever to bring Saudi Arabia's rulers to account for these horrors.

In the words of Roger Cole, the outstanding leader of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, PANA, it is high time for neutrality to be enshrined in the Irish Constitution. It should not simply be a Government policy position, as the Minister has outlined and to which the Fianna Fáil spokesperson referred, but should be codified as a constitutional lynch-pin of our democracy. Hence my support for the Bill today. I warmly commend PANA, its committee and membership and Roger Cole for their tireless, indefatigable and valiant campaign since it was founded in 1996 to place Ireland's military neutrality clearly within the Constitution. It is to be hoped the campaign will succeed on foot of initiatives such as Deputy Seán Crowe's today.

PANA, as Deputy Crowe mentioned, commissioned a RedC poll in September 2013 which clearly showed that the vast majority of Irish people want to enshrine our neutrality in the Constitution. In that poll, 78% of Irish adults agreed that Ireland should remain neutral, 79% felt that Ireland should not support a war in Syria without a UN mandate and 85% were opposed to Irish troops being sent to Syria.

Roger Cole has also drawn attention to the 2011 Fine Gael and Labour Party programme for Government, which stated, "We will enforce prohibition of the use of Irish airspace, airports and related facilities for purposes not in line with the dictates of international law". He has also highlighted the emergence of ISIS, the major death toll and destruction which has resulted from the horrendous 2003 invasion of Iraq and the fact that elements of the American economic elite now want to fight a proxy war with Russia over Ukraine. I echo and support the comments of Deputy Mick Wallace on that terrible conflict. It seems incredible that the largest European country would be excluded from the developments that have taken place on the Continent to enhance democracy and co-operation in the past 50 or 60 years.

The continuing mayhem in Iraq, Libya and Syria and the situation in eastern Ukraine should be a primary responsibility for a greatly enhanced UN organisation. Ireland must avoid getting drawn in a military manner into what are humanitarian disasters. For that reason, it is timely that Deputy Seán Crowe and Sinn Féin have presented this Bill to Dáil Éireann today. I full support it and will vote for it next week.

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