Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It is very clear that this Government is determined to erode any remaining semblance of Ireland's military neutrality. It is doing so extremely cynically by attempting to portray it as a necessary and mature response to Putin's horrendous invasion of Ukraine. The truth is that it is not a new position for the political establishment or Fine Gael. We can go back 19 years to 2003, when Fine Gael proposed in a policy document to move beyond neutrality. The document supported participation in a common EU defence policy and abandoning the so-called triple lock, which requires that the Government needs UN authorisation and the approval of the Dáil before engaging in military action. That argument described the triple lock mechanism as a political straitjacket. Those words are very revealing about the attitude of the political establishment to neutrality in this country.

Ordinary people have overwhelming support for neutrality and see it as independence from military alliances and consistent opposition to all imperialism, be it Russian, American, British or whoever. It is a position in line with the slogan of "Neither King Nor Kaiser" raised by James Connolly in the First World War in opposition to the slaughter of working class people in a war for colonies and profit. In contrast, the political establishment sees it as a straitjacket and a restriction on its ability to cosy up further to US imperialism, including sending working class young people to fight and die in new wars for oil and profit. They have worked consistently and assiduously to undermine it, like with the criminal use of Shannon Airport to ferry over 2.5 million US troops to occupy the Middle East.

The Government wants to be fully rid of it and now it sees its chance. Just look at what has been said in the past two weeks. The Taoiseach said that neutrality is a policy issue that can change at any time. The Tánaiste said we need to think about greater involvement in European defence. The Minister for Foreign Affairs said three days ago that there is a good chance we will be involved in the rapid reaction force and raised the need for a debate about the triple lock. All of this is being done without a public debate and the ability of the people to decide.

Next week, we are using our Private Member's time to try to ensure that they do have a say and that we have a referendum to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution. That means no involvement in military alliances like NATO or the Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO. It means no transport of war material or personnel through the country to participate in armed conflict and it means no participation in European militarisation. I know the Minister does not agree with that, but he said a couple of weeks ago that it is appropriate to debate Irish neutrality. Would he agree to have the debate in public and let the people decide?

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