Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too support this Bill, but there are pitfalls in it. I salute what the Army did as peacekeepers all over the world. Ireland was recognised as being a neutral country as far back as Seán MacBride and his attempts in that regard. I am very concerned about Fine Gael and the noises emanating from that party, and from some in Fianna Fáil as well. We are in the EU club now and it is almighty. There has been much talk of NATO and Ukraine getting involved in it. Now that we are in a mess, they are afraid to do anything. We must give a clear signal that we are a neutral country and that we have dignity and respect for ourselves and for all peoples.

We have the experience of what happened in the Middle East. They went in and bombed the hell out of Saddam Hussein and all the rest of them and left messes after them. I am no spokesperson for him, but under Saddam and others, minority Christian, Muslim and other traditions were allowed to practise with freedom and impunity but now they are being slaughtered and we walked away from it. When I say "we", I mean the rest of the world who did this in the name of I do not know who. We must be very careful here with words.

Our sisters, brothers and priests went all over the world as missionaries training and educating people and providing water, and they still do it. NGOs are replacing them somewhat now, but we must never forget what those people did with so little. They gave up their lives to their vocation with dedication and passion.

Our Army has been run down to nothing. It is an insult to the good officers in the Army. The Government for the past ten or 11 years has done it spectacularly. We depend on everybody else to come in and help us. Those who cannot help themselves cannot help anybody else. We need a decent Army here to help with flooding, famine or any kind of catastrophes that might arise here, not to be sidekicks for Europe or anybody else. We must make haste slowly here, protect and value our neutrality and be really neutral, not with the pan-European views held by Fine Gael and now Fianna Fáil as well. We saw President Biden attending the EU Council. I ask what is going on.

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