Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. It has been the Government official position for a long time that Ireland is not a member of such an alliance, and this has been repeated consistently in legislation. Ireland's official policy is to be militarily non-aligned. We are, however not politically non-aligned. I was surprised when the Deputy, through the Chair, criticised the Minister for Foreign Affairs and stated that we are not neutral towards Ukraine. We are not. We are not politically neutral in respect of Ukraine. Russia has invaded Ukraine. How could we be neutral? Is the Deputy suggesting that we should be neutral on this? This is not a conflict between two countries. This was an invasion by one country with an imperialist 19th-century perspective that believes it has a right to say that its neighbour does not have a right to exist and stated, "We are taking over that neighbour. We are going to invade it and, with all of the military power that we have, we will bomb residential targets and infrastructure, and you have to come to heel". It also stated, "The rest of the world should stay neutral on this and let us get about our business because this is alongside where we live." We cannot accept that premise. As a result, we cannot be neutral on the matter. We just cannot be neutral on it.

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