Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On Thursday, there is a debate on Ireland's further participation in the European Defence Agency. This is a mouthpiece for the European arms industry. The Taoiseach is planning to further involve us with this organisation, which represents those who make profits from producing weapons that are sold to, among other places, countries like Israel to murder Palestinians. Not only do European governments not sanction Israel for its murderous activities, as we have seen in Jenin on an ongoing basis - day in, day out - but also European arms companies sell weapons worth billions to Israel. We buy Israel's weapons and boost its arms industry to give it more money to kill more Palestinians. At the very least, we should have a bit more time to discuss the implications of us getting more involved with the industry of death and destruction in Europe that profits from, among other things, the murder of innocent Palestinians by Israel, which Europe supports with its arms trade.

See this speech in context