Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are diving straight into this madness when we have almost zero detail, and nothing official in writing, about what this could mean for Ireland's neutrality. Instead of facts, the briefing document contains vague threats about us playing ball with the EU or else we cannot protect our interests within the Union. This vague language of ultimatum is unhelpful when discussing Ireland taking part in the expansion of the global arms trade. We must have details. What is PESCO and what will it do?

The notion that the public has been informed about this because it was an aspect of the Lisbon treaty in 2009 is nonsense. I was in a café this morning and I asked six people who came in whether they knew what PESCO is. They were people who would generally be well informed on most matters but none of them knew what I was talking about. They did not know what PESCO was. It is unbelievable of Fianna Fáil to thank the Government for articulating the position. Perhaps I missed it but I did not hear it mentioned on the "Morning Ireland" programme on the last two mornings. Perhaps it was mentioned, but I do not listen to the full programme. I did not see all the news programme last night but I did not hear it mentioned. Perhaps I missed that as well. Deputy Brendan Ryan pointed out that there were six groups on the Business Committee who wanted this matter postponed until after Christmas. Two did not. This is what new politics is. I had a different interpretation of what new politics is supposed to be but obviously I was wrong.

With regard to the details of PESCO, where will the weapons that will be bought with moneys from the fund be used? Will it be investing in weapons and technology to be used against civilians? For a few years now Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Germany have been dropping bombs in Syria. Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, France, Denmark and Belgium all took part in the disastrous military campaign against Libya in 2011 which was one of the maddest wars in history. When we argued about it here, we were told by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that it was a good idea. Whether we like it, we are signing up with a bunch of warmongers. How can we guarantee that PESCO will remain separate from the wars of aggression in which our European neighbours are very fond of being involved? If one reads the multitude of briefing and research documents written by consultants for the defence industry, one will see that they all open with the same lines - "Because of Brexit and the unreliability of Trump to provide Europe with a defence, Europe needs to start taking responsibility for its own defence". That is precisely the rubbish the Taoiseach threw at me yesterday.

Let us look at the facts. In the 16 years of never-ending wars of aggression since 2001, when we let it use Shannon Airport in bombing Afghanistan, the United States has done nothing short of destroying huge sections of the Middle East and North Africa, in the process killing between 1 million and 2 million civilians who had no involvement in the war efforts, driving millions more from their homes and radicalising many of those who stayed behind who, in turn, drove out or killed many of those who had stayed behind and refused to be radicalised. It has trained and armed extremist rebel groups at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and illegally invaded over 100 countries nearly every year for the last ten. That is a fact. In 2015 alone President Obama signed the death warrants of people in 134 countries, people who never saw a courtroom. The United States has expanded the drone programme to terrorise and bomb civilians everywhere it is operational. The United States arms and supports brutal dictators, tells lies about them when it suits and invades their countries, in the process destabilising them in order that everything will descend into chaos. Nothing has changed under President Trump. In fact, the arms industry loves him. The United States sold $42 billion worth of arms to the rest of the world in 2017, up €10 billion on the previous year. Aerospace and defence industry stocks have risen in value by more than 40% since November 2016. The Taoiseach says we do not want to rely on the United States to carry out these war crimes, that the European Union has to start doing it for itself. Do what exactly - emulate the record of the United States?

That the European Union needs to start taking responsibility for its defence is nonsense. Last year it spent 1.4% of GDP on defence. This amounts to roughly €200 billion, more than the amount spent by China or Russia, and second only to the amount spent by the United States. It hardly needs to beef up its defence spending. On what, in God's name, are we going to be spending the money when PESCO is fully up and running? Where are we going to use the weapons? Tackling cyber-crime and providing better gear for our peacekeepers will only cost so much. It would be great if we were prepared to put some money into defence. Would it not be great if we actually gave it to those involved in it, the Defence Forces, instead of asking their members to live on a pittance, given that many of them depend on supplements from the State to survive and feed their families?

Fianna Fáil has raised the issue, but how can anyone argue that our neutrality is under threat? I will ask Fianna Fáil a question. Let us suppose there is a change of Government after the next general election and it decides to let the Russians use Shannon Airport for military purposes. Would anyone here try to make the argument that we were still neutral? If we were to let the Russians use Shannon Airport for military purposes, would we still be neutral? What do Members think? Would they think we were still neutral? No, they would not. We are letting the US military use Shannon Airport to bomb the homes of people in other regions. We are not neutral and it is total nonsense to say we are. God help us and save us. I do not understand it. In fairness, I give the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Coveney, a little credit for being straight because both of them would prefer to be able to say, "No, we are not neutral. We are actually happy to be in the US military's camp. We are two out and out hawks and comfortable with it." However, they have not got there yet and do not yet want to say it because it has not been the language they have been using. They might upset Fianna Fáil which would prefer to pretend until the end of its days that we are neutral.

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