Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is completely wrong. The Irish people voted again in the Lisbon treaty when they got the answer wrong the first time. To baldly state that this issue has been discussed in Irish society is simply wrong. There has hardly been a single article in the press or any coverage in the media at all. If one were to randomly stop people on the street, even people who are usually very well informed have an incredibly low level of knowledge about PESCO, what it means and our involvement in it. It is not an exaggeration to say that the reason it was rushed through in such an unorthodox way was to avoid that type of public scrutiny because the Minister of State knows well that Irish people do not want to be part of a European army. The Minister of State is correct to refer back to the White Paper on Defence. It explicitly urges steps towards the creation of an EU army, such as integration of military capabilities and defence industries but it is not something that the Irish people have had the chance to address.

I think that is one of the reasons the Minister would not let us address it.

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