Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting that the European Union issued a press release from the meeting the Minister of State referred to on 30 November in which it stated that this big defence plan would "reverse billions of euro in cuts and other actions, supporting Member States' more efficient spending in joint defence capabilities". The EU is welcoming a reversal in cuts to its military budgets while at the same time insisting that key austerity measures are continually enforced on this country and on Greece.

I ask the Minister of State again if he will reaffirm Ireland's neutral stance when he meets the European Commission for this European defence action plan, how much Ireland will be contributing and how neutral Ireland can be if the defence budget is to be determined by the European Commission. We do not have a great history, given that we allowed more than 1 million troops through Shannon in the recent past and there is evidence that Shannon has been used for rendition for torture. People are rightly concerned about the viability of our neutrality. Given that this amount of money is being poured into a joint defence fund, this question is not being adequately addressed by the Minister of State.

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