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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 34 and 35 together.

The consultative forum will take place in three different locations over four days at the end of June, on 22 June at University College Cork, on 23 June at the University of Galway, and on 26 and 27 June at Dublin Castle. In line with similar national processes, an independent chairperson was selected to chair the consultative forum on international security policy. The chair was appointed having regard to the remit of the consultative forum and, consequently, to the competencies, skills and experience required to conduct same. The consultative forum adopted the same approach to the appointment and remuneration of the chairperson as for the citizens’ assemblies.

Louise Richardson DBE, the highly respected president of the Carnegie Corporation and former vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, has agreed to take on the important role. I am confident that Ms Richardson, who is a native of County Waterford and a distinguished political scientist with a strong expertise in security policy in her own right, will play a hugely positive role in chairing and overseeing the discussions.

The forum will be a broad discussion, examining issues such as Ireland’s work to protect the rules-based international order through our engagement in peacekeeping, conflict prevention and peace-building, and arms control and disarmament. It will look at new and emerging threats including cyber, hybrid, disinformation and threats to critical infrastructure. The forum will also examine our current and future engagement in the EU Common Security and Defence Policy, as well as our existing relationship with NATO through the Partnership for Peace.

Attendance at the forum will consist of invited guests, from Ireland and internationally, with expertise and practical experience in the areas to be discussed. I anticipate that those attending will also include various non-governmental organisations and, very importantly, members of the general public, for whom spaces will be reserved. Discussions will be livestreamed and there will be an option for online submissions. The objective of the forum is to initiate an open and evidence-based discussion on the State’s foreign and security policy. Anyone interested in engaging in the process will be able to do so. Full details of the programme over the four days, the arrangements for registration, livestreaming and the making of submissions will be published by the Departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs in the coming weeks.

Importantly, there are no predetermined or preconceived outcomes from discussions at the forum and participants will be free to raise any relevant issues during deliberations. The chair’s report will outline what transpired over the four days but will not include recommendations. Once it has been presented to me, I will consider its findings and decide whether to make recommendations to the Government.

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