Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

What is at stake here? At the committee, the Minister said this was about avoidance of duplication and the enhancement of co-operation. More generally, Government supporters of these proposals have argued that they deal with less controversial issues, namely, military searches, bomb disposal, maritime surveillance, etc. The message really is that we should move along and there is nothing to see.

There is a context to this, which relates to the tasks of the European Defence Agency. Part of the discussion must be around defining what the European Defence Agency is, whose interests it represents and what it does. Before I get into that, I would just make the point that if we are saying that it is about secondary or tertiary issues, the Irish State taking on those issues frees up resources for other nations to deploy in the European Defence Agency's more overtly militaristic projects. I choose my words carefully.

What is the European Defence Agency? It was set up in 2004 with the mission to improve European defence capabilities. The total defence spend of the 26 EDA affiliate nations at the start of 2019 was €186 billion, representing an increase of 5% on the 2018 figure. Defence military spending had risen in those combined nations for five consecutive years at that point.

Who benefits from that? The arms industry benefits from that. The great German anti-militarist and socialist leader, Karl Liebknecht, once said: "For capitalism, war and peace are business and nothing but business." That is as true today as when he spoke those words. To be clear, we can talk about this being about maritime surveillance and military searches and so on. However, in reality, the Irish State is proposing to take on some of those tasks, which will free up the other nations in the European Defence Agency to engage in the more overtly militaristic tasks of the EDA.

I see the Minister looking over with interest at the points that I am making. I am not surprised in the slightest that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are supporting the proposal. I take my hat off to both of them. They are consistent in their support for proposals of this kind. However, attention needs to be drawn to and light shone on the fact the Green Party is supporting this proposal. That is not what the Green Party is meant to be about. That is not what many people who have built up the Green Party down through the years are about. It is not what many young people who vote for the Green Party are about. It should reverse its position and oppose this proposal for what it is. If it does not, people should note exactly where the Green Party stands on the issue. The same point applies in relation to the Social Democrats. I listened to the comments of Deputy Gannon when I came into the Chamber. I had - perhaps naively - thought the Social Democrats would be opposing this proposal.

It is a proposal that helps and assists the European Defence Agency, which has a militaristic, pro-arms industry agenda. Neither the Green Party nor the Social Democrats should have any truck with that.

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