Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The world is rightly horrified at the unfolding disaster that is being unleashed on the people of Ukraine with Putin's bloody, inexcusable and murderous invasion of that country. Ireland's voice needs to be absolutely clear in condemning utterly that murderous invasion. We need, as I think it is clear the people of this country want, to extend every form of humanitarian assistance and support to those suffering under the bombs, bullets and shells of the Russian military, and to those who are fleeing their homes to escape this bloody conflict. We must provide refuge and be as generous as we possibly can in providing refuge for those fleeing from the Ukrainian crisis.

I must say, however, that it is extremely worrying to me that it seems that there is a clamour of media commentators and, more seriously, the Taoiseach and leading Ministers, who seem to be trying to exploit this Ukrainian tragedy and crisis to argue that we need to move Ireland away from its traditional position of military neutrality and closer to NATO and the project of European militarisation. We heard it from the Tánaiste last week and we have heard it from the Taoiseach. The latest example of this came from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, who was speaking in New York to the US Council on Foreign Relations, a body packed with hundreds of senior government officials, arguing that we need to consider greater co-operation with NATO and increased arms expenditure.

I find it absolutely extraordinary that in the face of the dire consequences of warmongering and militarism on the part of Putin, there is a thought that somehow more militarism, more arms expenditure and allying more closely with a military alliance that has also conducted and supported murderous wars elsewhere in the world is somehow a legitimate response. If we are opposed to Putin's brutal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, and we must be, we should not respond to that by joining an alliance dominated by powers that, for example, are supporting the Saudi dictatorship, which is conducting an equally murderous war in Yemen that has killed more than 300,000 people over the past four years and has now, according to the UN, brought 14 million people to the brink of starvation, or by continuing to ignore what Amnesty International is calling the crimes against humanity that Israel commits against Palestinians, supported and armed by the United States and the western powers.

In the face of this tragedy, is it not time to recommit to Ireland's position of military neutrality, which does not mean ignoring this crisis, but being a voice for sanity against the madness of warmongering and militarism?

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