John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While we are here to discuss the motion relating to Ireland's participation in the European Defence Agency project on maritime surveillance, we cannot separate the MARSUR project from the larger and more substantive issue of Irish neutrality. We have heard, and will continue to hear, arguments about the benefits to Ireland of participation by Ireland in the EDA. What we will not hear from the Government parties is how this participation comes with the continuing price of undermining our military neutrality as a nation state.

We cannot debate MARSUR without an examination of the continual erosion of neutrality that has steadily taken place since the early 1990s, when Ireland failed to take the opportunity to follow the example of Denmark in establishing protocols that would exempt our country from involvement in the mounting campaign for the militarisation of the EU. Since then, the Government has committed Irish troops to EU- and NATO-led military missions, and to EU battlegroups led by NATO member states. We have witnessed the deployment of Irish troops to overseas training missions without Dáil approval in the service of foreign governments, which are guilty of some human rights abuses. A real danger has re-emerged following the departure of Britain from the EU, with the advent of Brexit, that the issue of an EU army will be once again allowed to rear its head.

It is a matter of record that leading figures in the EU are committed to the creation of a continental army. We in this House have a duty to protect the principle of Irish neutrality, a principle that has served our nation well. We in Sinn Féin believe passionately in the contribution that our Defence Forces have made and continue to make to our standing as a nation on the world stage. We believe passionately in the principle of neutrality. We believe passionately in the role that a militarily neutral Ireland can make internationally as a potential initiator of peace in war-torn regions as a nation with its non-aligned reputational status intact. Neutrality is one of the elements in the combination of factors that contribute to the strength of the soft power that Ireland can wield in international affairs. It is soft power from which our country accrues a level of influence otherwise unattainable to a nation of our size. We owe our election to the UN Security Council to our non-aligned, honest broker status.

I do not believe that neutrality is a passive affair. It is not an abdication of responsibility within the sphere of international relations. It is the licence we possess that offers us the opportunity to make a difference. This Government seeks to continue on a path that would lead to our Defence Forces' submersion within a larger continental force, where we would possess little or no influence and our Defence Forces would be subordinate to the command of foreign leaders in pursuit of geopolitical gains that heretofore were not our concern.

This Government seeks to continue on a path which would lead to our Defence Forces being submerged within a larger continental force, where we would possess little or no influence and our Defence Forces would be subordinate to the command of foreign leaders in pursuit of geopolitical gains that heretofore we did not consider our concern.

The actions of the Government will undermine the standing, credibility and effectiveness of our nation as an honest broker on the international stage. To this end, Sinn Féin believes we must oppose this motion. While it may offer some tactical gains in respect of technical nous in the area of maritime surveillance, it would come at the larger strategic and moral price of our status as a neutral nation state.

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