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

Does the Taoiseach have any concerns about the largest weapons transfer in history being made by NATO forces into Ukraine? This escalated in the past week in the decision to send heavy tanks in the form of M1 Abrams from the US and Leopard 2 tanks from Germany and other European countries. Precisely as Deputy Boyd Barrett indicated, the logic of this is to have further and further escalation. Now the demand is that the only way to use these tanks very effectively is to have F-16 fighters in the air. The things that were previously said by western leaders about containing this conflict within certain realms, not going for an air conflict with Russia, for example, over the ground of Ukraine, are now being discarded. Is the Taoiseach not at all concerned that this leads in an extremely dangerous direction which could end up in further escalation by Putin, who is responsible for the brutal, bloody and imperialist invasion if Ukraine, into nuclear conflict? That is something that all of humanity must be extremely concerned about.

The winners here are not ordinary people in Ukraine or anywhere around the world but the armament manufacturers. If we look at their profits, General Dynamics, which makes Abrams tanks and Stryker vehicles, increased its profits in the final quarter of last year by 15.5%; Ratheon Technologies, maker of Stinger and Javelin missiles, doubled its profits in the last quarter of 2022; and Lockheed Martin also significantly increased its profits. They are the big winners out of this. Is the Taoiseach not concerned that these dealers of death and destruction are profiting from this massive drive to militarisation and massive expansion of military budgets, not ordinary people?

See this speech in context