Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise with the Taoiseach the participation of Irish soldiers in the EU's military assistance mission of Ukraine. We opposed Ireland's participation. We explained that this was a full-spectrum military training mission and a clear breach of neutrality. In response, Government representatives repeatedly said that Irish soldiers would only be involved in non-lethal training. A statement that went out from the Department after a Government meeting during the summer again stated that Ireland would be involved in things like de-mining and combat medicine but then it emerged, thanks to The Irish Times, that the Irish military is actually providing basic weapons training to Ukrainian soldiers. Yesterday, we had the spectacle of the Tánaiste explaining on the radio how providing training in using a rifle somehow qualifies as non-lethal training. Does the Taoiseach also believe that training people how to shoot rifles is non-lethal training? Does the Taoiseach accept that this is clearly lethal training? Does the Taoiseach accept that this is clearly yet another breach of Ireland's neutrality and a horrific abuse of Putin's invasion of Ukraine to drive this pre-existing agenda of removing what is left of neutrality and aligning Ireland with the western powers of NATO and the process of militarisation within the European Union?

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