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

One would almost think that the Minister was at an audition or something. He might not be the happiest man in the House though as earlier on I could have sworn I saw the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science skating down the corridor with a copy of The Irish Timestucked under his arm whistling a tune and polishing a piece of cutlery, and I do not think it was a spoon.

The Tánaiste got a little upset this morning when I questioned the line-up of speakers at his consultative forum on international security policy which is due to kick-off in Cork next Thursday.

The chairwoman of this event, as the Minister knows, it is a dame of the British empire who has offered up explanations bordering on justifications in writing for the bloody interventions of US governments in Latin America. She is also due to write the official report of the forum.

This morning I listed a number of speakers at the forum who I felt were reflecting a one-sided debate, so to speak. My point, of course, was that this is not a genuine forum or genuine debate and that it is a stitch up. The whole point of it is to soften Irish public opinion for increased military spending, military co-operation with imperial powers and de factoassociate membership of NATO. The Tánaiste did not like this and said that I had displayed a shocking intolerance to the whole idea of debate and he warned that I was not going to get away with it.

Following on from this morning’s exchange, I asked my office to analyse the list of 71 invited speakers to the forum. We calculate that there is a 5:1 ratio between speakers who on the one hand are overtly pro-NATO, overtly pro-EU militarisation, have a history of doing work for the military machines or have previously advocated for militarisation on the one hand, and on the other, speakers with a history of strong or consistently strong opposition to those forces and agendas. The main debate which will take place at that forum is not whether Ireland should join the rush to militarise but rather the degree to which we should do that, at what pace and in alliance with which imperial forces, thanks to the way in which the forum has been rigged.

Will the Minister admit that this is an extraordinarily biased speakers' list and invite an equal number of speakers who reflect the majority view of the Irish people, or would that undermine the actual agenda of the Minister and of the Government?

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