Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

There is a link, of course, despite the Minister's best wishes. He is correct that the article involved clearly states that whatever action is taken, it "shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy" of the individual member state.

The problem is that this Government and the previous Government have had an incredibly fluid interpretation of what it means to be a neutral country. While resources in France are spread across multiple peacekeeping operations, it is also the case that the French President has announced that it is going to engage in a pitiless war against ISIS. It is engaged currently in a bombing campaign in Syria and so on. The idea that Irish troops would relieve French troops in order for them to engage in actions elsewhere within that context would be reprehensible.

We can try to divorce our foreign policy from security issues - the Minister tried to do so in reply to the first question as well. The reality is that the best defence for our security is that we stop using Shannon Airport on a repeated basis by the US military, because it is an undoubted fact that the risk and threat to Ireland increases as a result of our assisting that aggressive war, which is so counter-productive.

See this speech in context