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

While I accept that the Minister of State has a stated policy in this House of respecting our neutrality and supposedly fighting for it, this goes beyond our neutrality. It is the fact that we are a part of the European Union, and every time the European Union speaks as a single voice our neutrality is ignored, forgotten about or put to one side. When the EU decides to use Turkey as a vehicle for part of the common security policy on the issue of the refugee crisis, we get tainted with that because we do not speak out as a voice. Regardless of whether it is a voice in the wilderness, we should at least speak out and call a halt to this or at least be seen internationally to be that lone voice. We have to put that across and that does not come across in the reports from any of the EU Defence Ministers' meetings or any of the other EU meetings at which decisions are taken to further erode the position of neutrality that we have taken and that we have encouraged other nations around the world to take.

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