Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure how many attempts have been made by different elected Members over the years to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution. The Sinn Féin Bill on 24 November was the most recent. Prior to that, a Bill was tabled by Deputy Mick Wallace on 18 December 2014. That Bill was defeated at Second Stage at a time when a RED C poll showed that 78% of the population agreed that Ireland should have a strong policy of neutrality. Both attempts, and all other attempts before that, have failed, primarily because the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parties, or indeed the Labour Party when its vote counted, did not support any of these Bills.

Why do Deputies keep trying? The answer is that these efforts on our part reflect the opinion of the majority of people. They reflect a long and proud tradition of neutrality going back to Wolfe Tone and to the 1916 Rising and Proclamation. If that is what the people want and that is our tradition, then why does each Government continue to vote against any change that would enshrine this concept in our Constitution? Clearly, neutrality is not a concept the Government wishes to see enshrined because leaving the status quoin place provides it and every other Government with much more elasticity with which to define Ireland's neutrality, depending on the needs of the circumstances and on who one's friends are at a given time.

This elasticity allows each Government to do many things, and I will only mention some of them. Since 2002, it has allowed Shannon Airport, a civilian airport, to be used by more than 2.5 million US troops to go to and from war zones in Iraq, Yemen and Syria. On average, 500 troops per day pass through this civilian airport. They are only the numbers we know about. That figure does not include military aircraft operated directly by the US military. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will not divulge this information. As a result, we are relying on concerned individuals and groups such as Shannonwatch. It is extraordinary that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade tells us that these military aircraft are not involved in military operations when it will not divulge any information about them. On average, military aircraft land in Shannon twice a day. Last month, Shannonwatch photographed six military aircraft in one day. Last year, 600 exemptions were given to military aircraft to land at Shannon and 700 exemptions were given for aircraft to carry weaponry by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport itself paid €2.5 million last year to the Irish Aviation Authority, which was a reimbursement of costs incurred by the authority for aeronautical communications, etc. What are these troops doing, I wonder, if they are not on military operations?

The elasticity concept of neutrality also allowed Ireland to join a European Defence Agency in 2004 and to make contributions to a European defence fund. The elasticity allows submarines to dock in waters. In the past month, a foreign submarine, allegedly one from NATO, docked in Horgan's Quay in Cork. There were armed personnel on Horgan's Quay in Cork. What permissions were granted by whom and for what? The elasticity allows exports of dual-use components. I could go on but the message is clear on what is happening with this concept of elasticity. The irony and scandal is that all of these decisions made in our name allowed us no input whatsoever. That is in complete contrast to Article 10 of the much-lauded Lisbon treaty, which states that every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the union and that decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen.

With regard to this upcoming meeting, I do not have much hope, but I do hope that the Minister of State might hear what we are saying and what we represent. We are being beseeched by the people of Ireland to stand up as an independent country with an independent foreign policy to be promoters of peace in the world. The irony is that the policy that we have followed along with Europe has led to a much less safe world. Some 65 million people worldwide are displaced by war and 24 people per minute are forced to flee their homes as a direct result of military conflicts.

One out of every 113 people globally is now either a refugee, asylum seeker or internally displaced person, and of these, 51% are children.

This is not what the people of Ireland are asking for. As I have said, they are beseeching us to stand up and be a voice for peace in the world. We have joined a Europe that is going increasingly in a military direction. The European Parliament on 22 November last backed plans to create a defence unit, but not once have we had an input into any of these decisions.

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