John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

By all accounts, the EU High Representative, Vice-President Josep Borrell, has intentions and plans to send EU forces into Mozambique by the end of the year. I believe the Minister made reference to Mozambique already. It appears to me that the sole intent of this is to protect a French mining company. I want the Minister to answer that claim. Why would the EU be sending forces to Mozambique in a situation like that?

I absolutely fully support Ireland’s role in peacekeeping and active neutrality. That is something I absolutely applaud, and rightfully so, we have received huge credit as an honest broker on that footing. If we were to go into ventures such as this in Mozambique and other scenarios, however, that will seriously question our neutrality. It is a further step towards militarisation within the EU, ultimately leading to an EU army, which the Minister said at this point is not the intention. I believe, however, that we are being dragged by the nose into such a scenario.

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