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

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “That” and substitute the following:“the proposal that Dáil Éireann approves, pursuant to section 2 of the Defence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1960, as applied by section 2 of the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006, the deployment of a contingent of the Permanent Defence Force to serve as part of EUNAVFOR MED - Operation Sophia, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2312 (2016) and UN Security Council Resolution 2357 (2017), and subject to renewal of the UN mandate/authority thereafter, be referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence to allow for the opportunity to carefully consider its implications.”

Operation Pontus is an EU operation in the Mediterranean in which the Irish Naval Service is currently participating with the Italians and up to nine NGOs. It is a purely humanitarian search and rescue operation which, over the past two years, has seen the Irish naval personnel rescue almost 16,000 people. The Naval Service's extraordinary and heroic efforts are a source of national pride and I wish to reiterate our unequivocal support for the important role it is playing. I also acknowledge the Trojan work the NGOs are doing in saving lives in the Mediterranean.

Today's motion, however, seeks to alter the remit of the Naval Service by signing up to an EU military mission, EUNAVFOR MED. It sounds great. The EU navy force for the Mediterranean, or Operation Sophia which, while UN mandated, is being carried out under the guise of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy. This will change utterly the role of the Irish Naval Service in the Mediterranean from rescuing migrants from drowning to a more offensive role of intercepting and arresting people-trafficking criminals, smugglers and militias and destroying their boats. Such a fundamental change in the nature of the Naval Service's operations in the Mediterranean is also a fundamental change in Irish foreign and military policy and it deserves more than the measly 40-minute debate that was initially scheduled, or indeed the 80 minutes that have now been set aside. I urge all parties, including the Government and its Independent partners, to support our amendment to the motion, which proposes that the taking of a vote on this motion should be deferred until the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence has considered it.

See this speech in context