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

Cuirim fáilte roimh an ócáid seo agus an chaoi seo labhairt faoi pholasaithe gnóthaí eachtracha, polasaithe a bhaineann le cúrsaí cosanta agus na dúshláin atá ann agus atá le teacht ar an bhfód sna blianta atá romhainn. Tá seans againn an díospóireacht leathan sin a bheith againn, ní hamháin anois ach sa chomhdháil atá i gceist againn a bhunú. I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the consultative forum on international security policy set to take place next month across four days and three venues in Cork, Galway and Dublin.

I am sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Burke.

As I stated previously, my aim in convening this forum is to build a deeper public and political understanding of the international security environment facing the State and the policy options available to us. This needs to be a national conversation, one that is inclusive and, as the name of the forum implies, consultative. We want to reach a broad audience and ensure meaningful public engagement. The forum will involve a wide range of stakeholders, analysts and practitioners. As I stated on several occasions, the discussion will not simply be a binary one on the issue of neutrality but, rather, will cover a breadth of areas relating to our foreign security and defence policy.

One of my key aims in convening the forum is to ensure the conversations we have in this country in respect of our security policy choices are well informed and based on fact and evidence. Members of this House, as well as the wider public, have differing views on how Ireland should address the international security policy challenges that face us. Those differences are entirely legitimate. It is precisely because there are many valid policy options to consider that I have initiated this national conversation. I have stated on multiple occasions, as has the Taoiseach, that the Government is not pre-judging the outcome of any of the discussions at the forum. There is no hidden agenda at play. Let us dispense early on with the notion that this is part of the latest secret plan by the Government to join NATO. What is important, though, is that the conversations are based on fact, not fiction. It is vital that the forum looks in an honest and serious way at the reality of the international security environment and how we, as a nation, should respond to this. In that context, I hope all parties and Deputies in this House will engage constructively in respect of the aims and ambitions of the forum. Ireland’s foreign, security and defence policy is simply too important to be reduced to politically expedient slogans. A Leas-Cheann Comhairle I believe that everyone in this House, notwithstanding political differences and individual or party political perspectives, shares the view that we, as a State and as a nation, have a fundamental duty to take our own security seriously. I also believe that all of us are aware that our security transcends national borders.

I will return to some of the practical aspects of what we envisage from the forum shortly. First, I will reflect more broadly on where we find ourselves today. Just under 15 months ago, the men, women and children of Ukraine were woken from their sleep by the brutal full-scale invasion of their country by Russia. This unprovoked and illegal act not only shattered the lives of millions of Ukrainian citizens, it also shattered the collective European security architecture, which had existed since before the end of the Cold War. It brought a hard reality home to many across Europe and beyond. First, that there are those in the world who are willing to use military aggression to invade and subjugate a democratic, peaceful, sovereign and militarily non-aligned neighbour. Second, that there are those in the world who, again through all possible means, including the use of force, are ready to challenge the rules-based international order and the universally accepted principle of respect for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states. This principle is the foundation of all of our security.

As I stated earlier this month in my speech to the annual international affairs conference of the Royal Irish Academy, the multilateral system, with the United Nations charter at its heart, remains our strongest protection and our most important global security asset. Our security in Ireland, indeed our very existence as a sovereign state, ultimately relies on the compliance by all states, however large and powerful, with this basic principle. None of us here has been under any illusion that the principles of the UN charter, and of the multilateral system more broadly, were held sacrosanct until 23 February last year. Millions of people globally have borne the brunt of brutal violations of international law and of human rights. Much of Ireland’s foreign policy efforts, through many decades, have been concerned with addressing those violations and trying to strengthen the international norms that protect civilians. Even in a fragile and contested global environment, however, few predicted that the European Continent would see a massive land-based territorial invasion of a sovereign country by its neighbour. Few imagined that apartment blocks, playgrounds and schools in cities a few kilometres from the borders of the European Union would be bombarded with hypersonic missiles.

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