Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach says he does not want to join NATO; public opinion would not allow him to. However, I think he does want to achieve a de facto associate membership of NATO by drawing ever closer and advancing integration into its structure without formally joining in the short term. I am against that because NATO is an imperialist military alliance led by the United States that does not and never will represent the interests of ordinary working people anywhere.

As for the consultative forum on security policy, what was originally floated by the Tánaiste was a citizens' assembly. The assembly is being kept, but the citizens are effectively being written out of the script.

To be honest, there was arguably more democracy in the tsarist Duma than there is in this forum. I put it to the Taoiseach that the people know what the Government is doing here and, in reality, it is just a sham.

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