Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is hard to understand why any party in this House would oppose this Bill. Since the Lisbon treaty, there has been a step change in the development of a European Union common defence policy. It is worthwhile reminding ourselves what that step change involved. Article 28 of that treaty committed member states, "to make civilian and military capabilities available to the Union for the implementation of the common security and defence policy". The treaty went on to commit that member states shall undertake to progressively improve their military capabilities.

There is no doubt that the crash of 2008 and the eurozone crisis may have tempered the advance of this militaristic logic, but the direction of policy from the Lisbon treaty to the present is very clear. The articles enshrined in EU treaty law override, in the words of one of the country's EU defence policy experts, rather than accommodate the neutrality of member states. From Sinn Féin's point of view, that is the key reason this constitutional amendment is necessary. It is needed to protect us from the slow but undoubtedly relentless logic driving the EU common defence policy. It is the logic evident in the development of PESCO and the initial commitment of €1.5 billion of military spending committed under PESCO up to 2020, including contributions from Ireland. It is a logic that has led to the first fully EU funded military project to develop a military drone, at a cost of €500 million, and it will take another major leap forward in the forthcoming EU budget, with an expansion of military expenditure to the tune of approximately €13 billion.

Anybody watching this debate who has a family member on a hospital trolley or who is paying high rent, desperate to get into social housing or paying high childcare costs would be aghast at the idea of any additional taxpayers' money being wasted on such expansionist military projects. More important, all of this erodes Irish neutrality and draws us ever deeper into an EU defence policy that is inextricably linked with NATO, thanks to the Lisbon treaty. It is no surprise that Fine Gael will not support this Bill. As my colleague, Deputy Mitchell, made clear, Fine Gael MEPs have launched a document suggesting that we should move according to its title, Beyond Neutrality. The voting record of Fine Gael MEPs in the European Parliament shows that they have supported every advance in the direction of an EU common defence policy as advocated by major powers.

The choice before us is simple. We either stand up for our neutrality and ensure that we continue to play a positive and progressive role on the international stage, free from either active or tacit involvement in any military alliance or adventure, or we continue the corrosive entanglement with an EU common defence policy that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have actively promoted over the past 20 years. My colleagues and I in Sinn Féin know where we stand tonight, but when the vote on this Bill is taken on Thursday next the public will know where every Deputy stands on this crucial national issue.

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