Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Patently, the fact that we are here is not an exercise in democratic scrutiny by the House. It is nothing more than a manoeuvre to avoid effective scrutiny of this measure, not just by this House but also among the broader public. There is no doubt in my mind that this is happening because the political establishment has learned lessons from the last time people were given information - on the Lisbon treaty and so on - therefore, it is better to keep them in the dark.

I am so shocked by some of the stuff that has happened this week that I still cannot get my head around it. The Government has valiantly been trying to pitch PESCO as nothing for us to worry about, something Ireland to which can sign up without any impact on our policy of neutrality. That is comforting - not - coming from people who have undermined so much our neutrality. As Deputy Brendan Ryan said, there is no reason this decision could not be delayed. If the Government is so confident that it can stand over the arguments for and answer questions on this issue, why are we ramming it through today? The questions have not been answered - the silence is the answer.

The Government tells us that PESCO does not mean that we are joining a European army, despite the fact that in September Mr. Macron specifically called for the establishment of an EU intervention force that would by 2020 give the European Union autonomous capacity to take action. He said that in order to achieve this a good place to start would be with what the European Union has already approved, a common defence fund and PESCO. While the Government sneers at the fears of some in this House and among the broader public, if they get to hear about it, that this potentially will involve Ireland in a European army, let us not forget that when the Taoiseach met Mr. Macron a few weeks after his bold statements on the creation of a European army, he gave him full support, with defence being specifically mentioned. I was also a little surprised yesterday when the Taoiseach said in answer to Deputy Mick Wallace that he did not do the fudge, "There is nothing to see. Do not worry about it." He actually came out and argued in favour of an EU army in preference to the US army. I certainly do not want to see an EU army. I do not want Irish forces to be involved in one and do not believe most Irish people do either.

There is no doubt - Deputies have made this point - that EU member states will commit to increased military spending. PESCO has absolutely been driven by the arms industry. While that should not surprise us, we still have the official line that it does not specifically commit us to sticking to NATO's bottom line of moving towards a figure of 2% of GDP for defence budgets by 2020. However, by committing to closer co-operation, a commitment that will be monitored, we are, in fact, committing to increased defence spending. Some have estimated that Ireland is likely to be handing over more than €1.3 billion by 2021, which is a conservative estimate. It is galling for Defence Forces personnel who are living on a shoestring that we will be able to put our hands on that money when we cannot even offer them decent pay and conditions. It is an outrage.

It is the case that the Government is bouncing us into this arrangement by doing it so quickly, without any proper public debate. In The Sunday Timesin 2016 Conor Brady sketched it rather well when he said, in talking about closer EU defence co-operation, that our politicians, as well as the military top brass, senior civil servants and diplomats, agreed with it but that it would be political suicide for any of them to make a full assault on Irish neutrality.

He concluded:

A policy of low-level, pragmatic collaboration with our EU partners in the building of defence capability is probably the best option. We could still argue that we are not, strictly speaking, part of the EU defence arrangements. It would be hypocritical, but we have no great reputation for straight-talking anyway.

That was prophetic and summed up exactly the approach being taken by this Government of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, ably backed up by their Independent Alliance colleagues.

For the Government to perform an end run around not just the national Parliament, but also the public, whose money will be shovelled into this abomination, whose bodies will be the fodder in the cannons of an EU army and who are Deputies' ultimate bosses, is unprecedented. When I first raised this matter at the Business Committee in November after it was mentioned at the European Council, we were assured that full democratic procedures would be followed, but that is not what has happened. Despite the fact that other Deputies have tabled Topical Issue matters and so on to try to raise the issue, there was no mention of it when we attended the Business Committee last week. Neither was there any mention of it being discussed this week or next week until it was shoehorned into the agenda earlier this week. That is unprecedented.

Without doubt, this will be viewed in time as one of the most treacherous decisions that the House has ever taken. Why are we doing it? A scenario has been created wherein by taking this course of action we are saving and protecting ourselves from the terrorists and marauding hordes that are suddenly on our border. Deputy Lisa Chambers tells us that we need to engage in surveillance, but surveillance of whom? Whose world is this making safer? The past decade has been the most militarised in history, yet there are more wars in more places now than ever before. If people want to make the world safe against terrorism, they should stop interfering in countries and destroying the lives of people who are then driven into terrorism as a so-called solution. To militarise our borders in order to keep out the victims of those crises or put surveillance on them is a disgrace.

If the Government was serious about combating terrorism and protecting the citizens of this State, it would immediately end the use of Shannon Airport by the US military and end the hypocrisy of claiming to be militarily neutral while bending the knee to the US establishment, the EU, which is our friend in terms of Brexit, and to their bosses, the arms industry, which is driving this situation for its own profit and to the detriment of humanity.

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