Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I intend to discuss Ireland's participation with the UN, but first I will address a few issues that have been raised in this debate, in particular, by the previous speaker. I acknowledge the fact warfare has changed in many ways. However, throughout the world and with the invasion of Ukraine, it is still working class men and women who are being sent to the front lines and killed because of the vanity of tyrants. We have spoken about having a debate on the issue of Ireland's neutrality. While it may be described by others as being academic, the outcome of that debate, from the desires of others, will still see working class men and women being sent to the front line to die. That will not be academic. It will be a reality, as it has been for generations. It is why Ireland's neutrality has been hard-fought for. It should be protected. When we see what has rightly been described as a creeping militarisation, we should be willing and open to debating the issue. It should not be the case that five minutes of the Dáil schedule is dedicated to discussing it. It should be much more than that. It is why we should protect this Chamber as a source of debate. Our neutrality was long-fought for and should be protected.

On Ireland's participation with the UN, since 1955 Ireland has embraced the collective security mechanisms of the UN. Then, as now, it was understood that Ireland is part of a global community, and that a security threat anywhere in the world can affect Ireland. Since the late 1950s, Ireland has committed its diplomats, members of the Defences Forces and members of An Garda Síochána in some instances to remote and far-reaching places to undertake crisis management for natural disasters and tackle the effects of interstate and intrastate conflicts and, indeed, poverty. Through peacekeeping, peacebuilding, peace enforcement and crisis prevention, Ireland's personnel have continuously put their lives on the line to bring stability to conflict regions, to ensure the restoration of human rights, to allow local communities to go safely to work, to freely vote, and for children to get an education in conflict zones. We are able to do that because of our reputation as those who put ourselves on the line in the name of peace. Ireland is proud to be the only nation to have an unbroken record of service to the Blue Helmet peacekeeping since 1958. Since then, Irish peacekeepers have served in more than 40 peacekeeping operations around the world, including in Afghanistan, the Balkans, East Timor, Rwanda, the Mediterranean and Lebanon to name just a few. Irish Defence Forces personnel have completed more than 70,000 individual tours of duty overseas since 1958. This service has not been without cost. To date, 86 members of the Defence Forces have given their lives to the service of peace.

With the evolution of the EU's Common Security and Defence policy, Ireland has committed itself to the understanding that Ireland is part of a community whose borders stretch from the mid-Atlantic to eastern Europe, and from the Arctic Circle to north Africa and the Middle East. The geographical scale of the EU, along with its global interests, have stretched Ireland's defence and security parameters even further, and still we are asked to do more. Transnational terrorism and climate change are threats that are multiplied by hybrid warfare and the tide of geopolitics, demonstrating a new complex relationship between all three strategic paradigms. Conflicts in Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Sahel region of central and north-eastern Africa, and the quasi wars' intentions in eastern Europe have created displaced peoples, breeding grounds for criminality in some instances, transnational terrorism, human trafficking, collapses in governance and human rights breaches. In collective response, Ireland has supplied personnel to Afghanistan, Chad, Georgia, the Mediterranean and Syria, to name but a few. Recently, we completed extraction missions in Libya and Afghanistan. Rather than praising and showering our armed forces personnel with the admiration they deserve, they have continued to suffer with poor working conditions, discrepancies in pay, reduced ranks and inadequate resources and equipment. How many times has the State forgotten to book flights home for overseas units? Just in the last week, our proud Defence Forces personnel were told that they will be sent to Dublin Airport to cover for the fact that the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, has mismanaged its own systems. Our Defence Forces personnel have a proud and distinguished history of placing themselves in harm's way in the service of peace. We are having a debate here today that is not the most important one in relation to how we protect not only our long sought-after peace and neutrality, but how we enhance and respect those who place themselves in harm's way. Setting aside five minutes to debate the UN or participation in PESCO projects is not enough. We need much more time than that. The only debate we should be having today is how to enhance the role of our peacekeepers, how to pay them better and how to ensure that they are not living in poverty. We should debate the issue of Ireland's neutrality, but in the meantime we should have a conversation about how we look after our peacekeepers and soldiers. Currently, people are leaving the Defence Forces because of a lack of morale. In the past week we have learned of the plans to send Defence Forces personnel to the airport to cover for DAA's mismanagement, which further erodes that morale. There are conversations about greater expansion of the Defence Forces in terms of the erosion of our neutrality and further engagements beyond what we are already being asked to do. How can we do that when we are already losing soldiers and peacekeepers because of the lack of respect being shown to them by this State?

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