Dáil debates

Thursday, 24 November 2016

An Bille um an gCúigiú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Neodracht) 2016: Second Stage [Private Members] - Thirty-Fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Neutrality) Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members]

 

5:05 pm

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

Tairgim: "Go léifear an Bille an Dara hUair anois."

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Ba mhaith liom mo chuid ama a roinnt leis an Teachta Seán Crowe.

The Thirty-Fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Neutrality) Bill that Deputy Crowe and I have jointly signed and tabled allows for a referendum to amend Articles 28 and 29 of Bunreacht na hÉireann to ensure Ireland is prevented from aiding in any way a foreign power in preparation for or during a war unless it has the assent of the Dáil. Ireland's neutrality should be cherished, protected and enhanced so that we can reaffirm our commitment to a different type of international politics focused on peace, justice, equality and human rights. The Government, regrettably, has made clear it will oppose this Bill and today it published an amendment – exhibit A in the case – that supposedly reaffirms our neutral status by citing what is in Article 29 of the Constitution, as if I did not know it already. I am seeking to change it. The Government's supposedly strongly worded amendment is nothing of the sort. It is not worth the paper it is written on, in many ways. It is a cynical attempt to hide the fact that the Government is running scared of allowing the people a vote in a referendum that would enshrine Irish neutrality in the Constitution.

Despite the claims of both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil that our neutrality is allowed for in our Constitution, the opposite is the case. This was made clear by Mr. Justice Kearns in the 2003 High Court case of Horgan v. An Taoiseach:

Despite the great historic value attached by Ireland to the concept of neutrality, that status is nowhere reflected in Bunreacht na hÉireann, or elsewhere in any domestic legislation. It is effectively a matter of Government policy only, albeit a policy to which, traditionally at least, considerable importance was attached.

The Bill addresses that anomaly by allowing for a referendum in which citizens could vote to reaffirm our neutrality. The Taoiseach, however, claims that by reaffirming our neutrality and inserting a clause to that effect in the Constitution, the Judiciary may constrain the Government's capacity to fulfil its obligations in support of UN-mandated actions. By this very reasoning, no amendment could be made to the Constitution on the grounds that citizens seeking clarification on what is constitutional would constrain Governments from implementing policy. What is the purpose of the Constitution at all if one is worried the Judiciary or citizens may interpret it? The idea is that we put in a constitution principles that we uphold and then add laws to protect it and give effect to it.

Spin doctors, the Taoiseach and perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe, have been complaining about the cost of a referendum. Nowhere did I state in the publicity material circulated before the introduction of this Bill that the Bill had to be a stand-alone initiative. The public has shown quite ably that they can deal with several concepts at the same time. Several referendums have been held at the same time. The proposed referendum can be held with the others the Government has already committed to holding. Therefore, the cost is negligible. One way or the other, whether there is a cost or not, it should not be the key point if we believe in neutrality as a principle. In that case, the principle should far outweigh the cost given what is at stake.

The views expounded by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in rejecting this Bill are totally false. In some ways this is why the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, and the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, argued so forcefully during this week's Cabinet meeting for a free vote on this Bill. It is why both, in addition to Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, supported the exact same Bill when it was tabled in 2015 and it is why they have been so strident in their criticism of how successive Governments have abused Ireland's position of neutrality. I hope, therefore, that they will remain true to the positions they adopted in the past and will vote with us to enshrine Irish neutrality within Bunreacht na hÉireann when the vote is taken next Thursday. By so doing, they will have reaffirmed their support for a policy of non-membership of military alliances at a time when Ireland, like other neutral countries such as Sweden and Finland, are being pressurised to join NATO or to support and be part of ever-growing EU military architecture.

This Government, like its predecessors, seems hell-bent on adopting policies that compromise and undermine our neutral status. By so doing, it is at odds with the majority of Irish citizens who value and support our neutrality. In a document I presume all Deputies were given by the Irish Peace and Neutrality Alliance, PANA, I saw a reference to the only poll I know of that was carried out to ascertain the public's view on neutrality. It was a Red C poll carried out in 2013. It was found that 78% of the public supported in full Irish neutrality.

Probably the most obvious example of how successive Governments have discredited Irish neutrality is the continued use of Shannon Airport as a military stopover for US armed forces. Since the illegal invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, over 2.5 million US troops have travelled through Shannon in transit to and from conflict zones in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan, countries where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, maimed or left displaced and destitute.

There is evidence that indicates Shannon Airport is a stopover for CIA rendition flights, involving a blatant and perverse contravention of our neutrality. The State has never investigated the possibility that we have facilitated torture. By the failure to act, successive Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour Party Governments have made the State complicit in gross violations of human rights.

This contravention of Ireland's neutrality has contributed to deaths, torture, starvation, forced displacement and a range of other shameful human rights abuses that could have been stopped had the Governments called halt or had this legislation enshrining neutrality in the Constitution been passed.

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