Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The concerns are genuine and deeply held because Irish neutrality has served us very well. The Tánaiste did not refer to Irish neutrality. It appears the forum will not have a mechanism to analyse how well military neutrality and non-alignment have served us.

The Tánaiste says that his Department will identify potential experts. Who will select those experts and what criteria will be used? The Tánaiste stated that it will be open, but then indicated that members of the public can make submissions online. Will members of the public be able to attend or watch online but not to directly participate in the forum? I will have further questions but ask particularly about the experts and how they will be selected to participate. Everybody knows when dealing with such forums that the selection of experts can skew the tone and direction of debate.

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