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

On the question of peace, stopping war and today, the key to stopping war and ending the rule of autocrats lies with people power and, more specifically, with workers' power. The Vietnam war, which I spoke of at the outset, was defeated by a pincer movement with key resistance by the Vietnamese people and the US anti-war movement. The Stalinist dictatorships of eastern Europe were toppled not by NATO tanks but by people power. The beginning of the end of the First World War was protests and strikes by Russian workers on the streets, which toppled a Tsar and went on to defeat capitalism. The key to defeating Putin's war lies with the resistance of the Ukrainian people and the actions of the Russian anti-war movement itself. By the way, the more NATO is involved, the more Putin is strengthened at home, as seen with the comments regarding regime change that were made by Biden in Poland at the weekend.

I want to say a word about those, including the Minister, who want to increase military spending in this country. I want to see more spending on pay and conditions for Defence Forces members. We defend the interests of Defence Forces members, despite the comments of the Minister earlier.

I want this country to be secure from cyberattacks. There is a certain hypocrisy in Fine Gael Ministers highlighting the issue of cybersecurity when Fine Gael's underfunding of the HSE's security system for years and years left it open not just to attack but to being crippled last year. If more money is needed to defend the likes of the HSE's computer system, that is no problem.

Nevertheless, I am totally opposed to massive increases in spending on arms and the weapons of war. The PESCO target of spending 2% of GDP on military would bring Irish military spending to €3.6 billion. The Minister does not support that position at this point but he might think about what we could do with €3.6 billion. Let us look at the cost of living crisis and the rising prices of oil, food and fuel. A total of 70% of Irish households could be given a cheque for €1,000 each to offset those fuel and food price increases. That is how we will fight this campaign, namely, with class politics. We will make the point we need money for our nurses, our health system and housing, not to be spending on arms.

The Minister stated there is a good chance Ireland will be involved in the rapid reaction force. There is no chance of that without major opposition in society because it is not the sons and daughters of Ministers who will be sent to risk their lives. It will be sons and daughters who come from working class homes, as has always been the case.

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