Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In September, the Minister of State sent the LE Samuel Beckett to one of the world's biggest arms fairs. Along with it, he sent a delegation of departmental officials to browse the stands of the arms manufacturers. There was, correctly, an outcry at the time. I do not know whether the Minister of State is blind to, or arrogantly ignoring the fact the vast majority of Irish citizens are fully behind our policy of neutrality and are increasingly becoming more alive to the Government's efforts to undermine it. The Taoiseach received an email this morning, to which we were copied in, from a citizen I do not know. She wrote to the Taoiseach stating she is very worried at the slow but definite movement of Ireland into the heart of the EU military structure. This is exactly what is happening. We do not have the military capacity to become a military power. All we are doing is exposing Irish people while not protecting them, by trying to play that game for some prestige or some unknown reason. We cannot abandon this policy. What is particularly offensive is the idea we are doing it without any real and serious dialogue in here.

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