Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I feel very strongly about neutrality so I welcome the opportunity to speak about it here. Neutrality has served us well. There is clearly a drift away from our current neutral status. The Government appears to be pushing us away from it. I know the Tánaiste is nodding his head but that is the strong impression that people have. Internationally, we are held in high regard for our commitment to peace and stability. The high regard our peacekeepers are held in is a clear testimony to this. While I welcome every opportunity to speak about the importance of upholding and strengthening Irish neutrality, I do not feel the consultative forum the Tánaiste has put in place is a fitting process for what is such an important issue for the Irish public. The public clearly supports our neutral position. The consultative forum will minimise the voice of ordinary people who overwhelmingly support neutrality. This forum will be made up of Government appointees. They say that if you want a particular point of view you should hire a planner. The planner will give you that point of view. In some ways that is what this feels like. The Government is getting the consultant to tell it what it wants. It will then be brought back and we will be told this was democracy in action. The reality is that the concluding report will be authored by another Government appointee and the fair and just process would have been to let the voices of ordinary people be heard through a citizens' assembly.

Elements within the Government are pushing the narrative that neutrality leaves Ireland weak and exposed. What they fail to highlight is that successive Governments have failed our Defence Forces. Through cut after cut, they have stripped the Defence Forces down to the bare minimum. A neutral state has a responsibility to secure its land, air, and seas but successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have underinvested in and have run down our Defence Forces. We need to see effective and meaningful investment in our Defence Forces. We need to see the value and respect being shown by the Government to the men and women who carry out the task of securing this State. For decades, Ireland's voice, as a neutral state with a deep commitment for peace, was heard and respected globally. We were clearly known for our determination to build peace between conflicting groups. A previous speaker mentioned Eamon de Valera and the major contribution made and when you look back at the impact made by Frank Aiken during his time as Minister, he was a strong voice against European colonialism in Africa, spoke out against apartheid in South Africa, was deeply committed to peace in the Middle East and, of course, was a champion of nuclear non-proliferation. Where is that commitment to global peace gone?

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