Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom mo chomhghairdeas a ghabháil leis an Aire Stáit as an bpost nua atá faighte aige. Bhí mé mar urlabhraí mo pháirtí ar cheisteanna cosanta ag amanna difriúla thar na blianta. The motion deals with Ireland's participation in the EU battle group, which is led by the UK and also comprises Cyprus, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. It permits the Government to agree to the deployment of soldiers to an EU battle group meaning a contingent of our military personnel will form part of a battalion-sized force of 1,500 soldiers complete with the combat supports required.

These are aptly named battle groups because they allow the EU to project its military might by retaining its capacity to rapidly deploy combat-ready troops to regions across the globe. Their primary purpose is to go into battle on behalf of the EU wherever post-colonial powers such as Britain decide such action is necessary. Can we imagine the EU going to war? Some people cannot, but there are warmongers in Europe and abroad who would be quick to embroil the EU and its countries in external wars. We only have to look at recent history to see occasions upon which similar warmongers wanted the EU to embroil itself in wars not of its making and not of major relevance to it. Recently, there were the disputes between Russia and Ukraine and Russian and Georgia. One should look at the history of some of the member states we would be joining in an EU battle group and the stance they took in Syria, Libya, Iraq and elsewhere in that region. They supposedly aligned themselves with democratic rebels, and we have seen the consequences of that in the world.

Ireland should have and has had quite an honourable tradition in the UN. We would be best placed to try to enhance our role in the UN and to work with it in peacekeeping, rather than enforcing peace or taking sides as the EU battle group would be doing in the future. We have a proud tradition and our soldiers have performed peacekeeping duties right around the world. All one has to do is look at the recent operations by our Naval Service and its contribution to the rescue missions in the Mediterranean to see the role our Defence Forces should have. They are aptly named the Defence Forces because their role is the defence of Ireland, not the defence of everywhere else in the world. We are a small nation and our Defence Forces have been starved of investment in many ways. In the rest of Europe there has been huge growth over the last number of decades, and spending on armaments has continued to grow. While we have seen famines and crises in terms of poverty throughout the world, those modernised countries that would have us invest money in a battle group are spending money that would save lives on increasing their armaments and their capabilities. That is the biggest disgrace of the concept of the EU battle groups. Rather than investing in the UN and its poverty eradication programmes or investing in the UN so it can become fully effective, we have aligned ourselves to those who would create another military institution similar to NATO and other Cold War institutions that should be gotten rid of. At this stage, the role of progressive states in the world should be to enhance the UN rather than undermine it by creating competing military complexes such as the EU battle groups concept.

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