Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I dtús báire ba mhaith liom dhá rud a úsáid a dúirt An Breitheamh Charleton i gcomhthéacs An Garda Síochána le déanaí. Dúirt sé nach féidir an dubh a chur ina gheal ach seal agus chomh maith leis sin dúirt sé áit éigin eile sa tuarascáil gur ionann an ceist ceart a chur agus a bheith leathbhealaigh tríd an próiséas chun freagra a fháil. Mr. Justice Peter Charleton, in his recent report, which I will be looking at tomorrow and which I will not go into now, used two phrases I will make use of here. He said one can only deceive for so long and that to ask the right question is to go far in answering it. We see a Europe developing where we are not allowed to ask questions. We see foreign policy discussed in terms of who is and who is not our friend.

Unfortunately, we have received a letter from the Ceann Comhairle. I understand he might have been in a difficult position but he has written to all Deputies and said clearly he is not telling us what to say or how to act but he is reminding us that the one China policy has long been in place. It is the Government policy. He tells us it is up to us but it is important to remind us that China is our friend and Taiwan is not. We have similar use of language on Saudi Arabia and a failure to condemn it. There is a similar use of language on Turkey. Despite all the complexity and education, we are now reducing foreign policy to who is our friend and who is not.

I proudly canvassed against the Lisbon treaty because, leaving out the references to the market and the free market, it primarily set down in black and white the militarisation of Europe. There was one good little paragraph in the Lisbon treaty that said all decisions should be made as near as possible to the citizen. That has been absolutely ignored and we have decision after decision made by unelected people. Twice in this Dáil session we have been subjected to two unelected people from Europe talking to us in the Dáil. I think it is unprecedented but I am subject to correction. I watch with dismay and take every opportunity to highlight the continued use of Shannon, as do my colleagues Deputies Wallace, Clare Daly and Maureen O'Sullivan. The continued use of Shannon is tolerated with no questions asked and when questions are asked no answers are given. I have watched PESCO be signed in my name, which I never gave permission for, and we have committed to regularly increasing defence budgets in real terms in order to reach agreed objectives. At present it is 2% of GDP which equates to an eventual increase in military spending to €2 billion per year. We had the EU's High Representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini, calling it an historic day for European defence. Imagine an unelected woman telling us that this is an historic day for defence. It is more and more money going into the militarisation of Europe. I do not have the time to go into all the details but at a time of pressing social need, particularly in housing and health, how we can commit to increasing the money going into defence - I put that word in inverted commas - in Europe? It is simply dochreidte i ndáiríre agus bheadh mé ag súil le athrú ó na mná atá istigh sa Rialtas, go mbeidh siad frithchogadh agus ag taispeáint an bealach chun síocháin a bheith againn sa saol, seachas a bheith taobh le na fir atá i mbun cogaidh.

Another aspect that is of great concern to me is the European Border and Coast Guard Agency which was there but which has been accelerated.

The creeping militarisation of Europe has become an accelerated process, with a plan to strengthen the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, which was established in 2016 with a force of 1,500 members, by increasing it to 10,000 members in order that we can protect "fortress Europe".

There are pre-European Council statements and post-European Council statements, which utterly fail to deal with the challenges. While Brexit is a challenge, compared with climate change it pales into insignificance. Compared with the militarisation of Europe and the consequences thereof, Brexit pales in significance, as it does when compared with the democratic deficit that led to the Brexit vote in the first place, which this Government and other Governments refuse to look at. It is clear to me that a huge part of what led people to vote for Brexit was the democratic deficit that Europe and the Council in various meetings refuse to look at.

The first anniversary of the death of a Maltese journalist, fell this month, while another journalist was murdered recently in Bulgaria because she dared to talk about corruption in that country. We have seen how our own High Court judge was treated by the newspapers in Poland. There are serious democratic problems in all countries in Europe, yet we dare to lecture or tell other people how to live.

I am a proud Irishwoman and a proud European, but we joined up for a market and a trade deal. We never joined up to lose our sovereignty or neutrality. It is time for this country to grasp the nettle, stand up and speak for peace in this country rather than determine our foreign relations by who our friends are. That is akin to what children might do in a playground. We have learned nothing from the group mentality that led to the disaster in this country.

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