Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Unlike Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin not be supporting this motion. Sinn Féin will oppose this motion and will vote against it.

We heard from the Minister of State about SOFAs. Basically, SOFAs grant immunities to soldiers in the face of prosecution and give them protection from local courts and local justice systems in order that they be returned to their home countries and face prosecution in some cases. In what they do, that is fair enough. However, it is worth noting at this juncture of the debate that SOFAs have also been used controversially by the military of some other states over recent years. I refer, for example, to US and British soldiers who committed crimes in Iraq.

We already have SOFAs in place with the UN for Irish soldiers operating under UN-mandated missions. The key point, from my party's perspective, is that this is already in place.

The Irish soldiers are already protected under UN missions and for other missions when the exchange of letters takes place to deal with the legal issue. The question we need to ask ourselves as a Parliament and as a people is why is the Government bringing forward two status of forces agreements, SOFAs, to deal with the EU and NATO now. Why, at this time? Is it a tidying up of some side issues to prepare us for more intense or greater links with the EU army being proposed by many of the Government's partners in Europe? When this motion was discussed in the committee, and again today, the Minister of State clearly said the Department was told that the Defence Forces would not be able to participate in the German-led battle group in 2020 if Ireland did not have the SOFA in place. There it is: this is a vote on Ireland's participation in an EU battle group. That is what the Minister of State has said in the committee and again repeated here today: that and our participation in the NATO so-called Partnership for Peace, PfP. The Partnership for Peace is basically a stepping stone to full NATO membership. For Ireland to have any link at all with NATO is contrary to our neutrality no matter what way Deputies try to dress up that issue.

Sinn Féin is emphatically opposed to this motion. It is a disgrace to see Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continuing to work together to undermine Irish neutrality and lay the groundwork for an EU army. Every step that has been taken on defence issues in the EU since has moved us further along the path of the creation of an EU army. This was seen in the Treaty of Lisbon and the creation of EU battle groups. Sinn Féin rightly told the Irish people that the Lisbon treaty would be a betrayal of Irish neutrality and lay the foundations for the creation of an EU army. We were proven right and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continue to lie to the Irish people about the true extent of what lies behind this. Those parties know how popular neutrality is here. That is why on three occasions in the last 13 years they have refused to support Sinn Féin’s legislation to hold a referendum on enshrining neutrality in Bunreacht na hÉireann. If they really believed in Irish neutrality and if they had no problem with Irish neutrality then they should have backed our motion, not once, not twice, but three times to make sure it was locked in tight and enshrined in Bunreacht na hÉireann. But no, time and again Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have voted against that. We know the direction these two parties, along with their sister parties in Europe, are trying to take the European project. These parties know the Irish people would support inserting such neutrality into the Constitution and neutrality is something that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to do away with. That is the long and the short of it. This explains why they have been slowly eroding and chipping away at it since the 1990s. I believe that they cannot hide and pull the wool over peoples' eyes anymore.

An EU army is coming if the EU masters get their way. Do not just take my word for it or the word of Sinn Féin. Let us look at what some of those so-called European masters are saying. Let us put on the record of the House what they are declaring to the EU citizens and to the world. Jean-Claude Juncker has said that creating an army is one of the main goals of the EU. Or take the words of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and French President, Emmanuel Macron, who recently signed the Treaty of Aachen. They both explained how important the treaty was for their military co-operation and how it contributes to the creation of an EU army. The Minister of State could even listen to his own colleague and Dublin MEP who along with other Fine Gael’s MEPs produced a paper calling for a complete disbanding of Irish neutrality and full integration into the EU military apparatus and NATO itself. It is in black and white in a position policy paper published by that same MEP.

We could also listen to what is being said in Madrid. Fianna FáiI’s group in the EU, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, ALDE, has adopted a European election manifesto that says the party welcomes greater European co-operation in defence spending and agreement of PESCO, and encourages member states to increase defence co-operation further in areas of mutual advantage, in greater co-operation with and to "complement...NATO as NATO remains the backbone of military co-operation and guarantor of collective defence for Europe." Well, not on our watch. The leader of the ALDE group, which is Fianna Fáil's sister party, has openly called for an EU army and European defence union. He has said that Europe is only spending 40% to 45% of the US military spending and three times more than Russia. To booming applause from his liberal audience he quoted Macron saying that having 28 armies is a waste and that the EU needed only one army and Fianna Fáil’s EU leader spoke of it being their project.

Let us be clear about where they are trying to take the European project with regard to defence. So far the lack of SOFAs on the level that the Government now wants us to operate has not in the main hampered Irish Defence Forces in doing incredible work on United Nations mandated peacekeeping missions. That has happened and will continue to happen with or without these SOFAs before us.

What we really have before us is a change to how we deploy the Defence Forces overseas. We do not have to pass these two SOFAs today or at any stage when we already have quite an effective operating SOFA which deals with what is laudable and acceptable to the Irish people, which is participation in UN missions abroad. That is where it should start and where it should end. The motion is about making it easier for different countries to amalgamate their militaries and to have joint operations. This is about dragging Irish soldiers in the EU and NATO military apparatus and sending them off on missions. What should be before us is a motion extracting ourselves from these military organisations that compromise our neutrality. What should be before us is a Bill that Sinn Féin put forward to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution. That would be the right thing to do and what the vast majority of Irish people want. Instead we have a very similar situation to that of permanent structured co-operation, PESCO, where there was very little understanding or public debate on this huge change to our neutrality. Then all of a sudden it is foisted on us out of the blue. This is the common tactic of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in their attempts to undermine our neutrality, in that gradual and bit-by-bit erosion, piece by piece, along with their sister parties in the EU.

We have not heard a demand from anyone within the Defence Forces looking for these SOFAs. I put it to the Minister of State that there are sufficient protections available, such as the SOFA for UN missions. Instead this is joining us up to the EU’s continued militarisation project. The people have repeatedly taken stands to demand that we respect neutrality. That is what this Parliament should be doing. This is why Sinn Féin will call a vote on this issue. The motion before us is totally contrary to the idea of Irish neutrality. Sinn Féin rejects it and we will continue to reject all attempts to erode Irish neutrality and to immerse Ireland in the EU military apparatus and the EU militarisation project, which is gaining momentum across Europe. We will oppose any attempt to bring Ireland closer to or into any NATO project associated with that.

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