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

Young people were to the fore in the protest at UCC this morning. That is not surprising. Young people have the most to lose from the militarisation of the world that the Government wants to join in with. Despite being pushed and dragged out the doors of UCC by gardaí, despite only one speaker out of 80 at this forum being from Generation Z, despite the tut-tutting in Oireachtas corridors from old baldies and grey-heads, young people's voices will be heard. I see the Tánaiste is saying that their arguments were incoherent and not evidence-based. Well, I look at the words on their banner: “NATO wars. Millions dead”. I think there is a lot of evidence for that. There are five speakers at this forum who are pro-NATO or pro-EU militarisation for every one against. Yes, there is a debate going on there but it is not a debate about whether to join the rush to militarise. Rather it is about how we do it and how fast. It is rigged. It is stacked. It is not a real debate. I am confident the Irish people will be a little bit wiser to what is going on here than what the Minister might think.

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