Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I must be honest and say that I have not read the report. I have not had the opportunity to do so. I will respond in more detail to the very detailed report when I get that opportunity. There are, however, basic principles I think we can lay down. I have long questioned the Minister about the issue of pay in the Defence Forces and the work burden that soldiers face. I welcome the fact that the Minister will be initiating discussions, albeit belatedly, with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform regarding the establishment of a permanent pay review body that would reflect the unique nature of military service. Personnel can be called at any time to serve very long hours for the same wage. We know that pay and conditions have long been issues of contention in the Defence Forces. If we are going to retain well-trained officers, non-commissioned officers, men and women, in the Defence Forces, we are going to have to pay them the going rate for the job.

We also need to deal urgently with the issues highlighted by the "Women of Honour" programme. Those are serious issues. It seems that women were brought into the Defence Forces but no adequate plan was put in place to ensure they would not suffer humiliation and worse within those Defence Forces. That issue is of considerable urgency.

I welcome the report and what I have read of it. I agree that we need to invest. That is obvious. However, I think we must decide what to invest and where lie the real challenges that we, as a nation, face. Is it really likely that the Russians will come in with a conventional army and pick Ireland, a small island off the west coast of Britain, as a launching pad? It is much more likely they would go into their next-door neighbours. There are challenges there, to which I will come in a moment. However, I believe that as an ex-colonised country, as a country which won its freedom and laid out a clear stall, we should look at what the Constitution says about our attitude towards international affairs. In Article 29.1, "Ireland affirms its devotion to the ideal of peace and friendly co-operation amongst nations founded on international justice and morality." It goes on, in Article 29.2, to state, "Ireland affirms its adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination."

The first thing we should do is become much more active at the UN and internationally, pushing that this be the way issues should be resolved between nations and not by the threat of an ever worse war by one side or the other. The second thing is that there is a growing lobby in this country, which I accept, that favours an EU combined military and foreign policy approach and that that combined approach would also involve the UK, a former EU member state, in close co-operation. Most EU states are in NATO and have mutual defence pacts.

It was interesting that the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, ALDE, Party reported today that:

EU Commission Executive Vice-President ... and Commissioner Thierry Breton have put forward a set of initiatives to enhance integration and competitiveness of the European defence market, reducing EU’s dependency in the security and defence areas and protecting it from the new threats.

In the EUobserver of 25 January, it was reported that the EU was "preparing to boost its naval presence [this corporate EU presence of which, remember, we are part] in the north west Indian Ocean 'to uphold freedom of navigation'..." The article continued, "The Indian Ocean project was outlined in a 'concept note' by the EU foreign service on 19 January." It went on to state:

"Member states deploying assets [warships] in the new NWIO [north west Indian Ocean] MAI ... would be a good opportunity" to "enhance the EU's diplomatic influence" there, the foreign service said.

The EU sees itself as a counterpart to Russia, China and the United States - a military power. Let us not cod ourselves. That is very much on the agenda and if we do not see that here, we are blind to what is happening in the real world.

I do not have any interest in becoming part of military power blocs. As a small ex-colonised country, we have always gone a different way with regard to our role in the world. We have done our bit. There is this idea that Ireland has stood there and done nothing. We have done a huge amount in peacekeeping, as the Minister pointed. We have done it with hard slog on the ground and by people interaction, not by having huge military weapons. It is well-testified too that Ireland, and Deputy Berry would know much more about this, has the unique record of creating human relations in the countries in which it has operated. We must, therefore, continue to invest in that and ensure that our soldiers who are sent abroad are well-equipped.

We have to invest in cybersecurity because we get rogue actors. They do not have to move. We saw that with the HSE. That should be under the military and we should invest significantly in that. Of course, we use the military within this country not thinking we will repel some major nation that is going to suddenly start marching down our main streets but against all sorts of rogue actors, natural disasters, coronavirus and so on. We use them as a support to the gardaí at times, for medical transfers and for ordnance disposal, as naval divers, in fishing protection and drug interdiction and so on. It is important that we invest in all those things. Do I want to spend €1 billion per year playing military games as part of a big military Europe? I would rather spend it on housing and health, and I will nail my colours to the mast on education. We could make a much better contribution to the world that way than we could by becoming part of some big military bloc with aspirations. Remember, all these are colonial countries, for instance, Portugal, Spain, France and so on. It is time we had a big open debate in this Chamber on what our military will do and on where we must invest, and we must invest.

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