Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to make some brief comments on the international security consultative forum. As someone who attended in person, I can say that I found it very useful and worthwhile. I am interested in international relations in any case but I picked up a lot of good nuggets at the forum, which I was not expecting, chief among them was that it is actually okay to have a different view from somebody else and to respectfully disagree with someone. Perhaps this is a skill in decline at the moment. We are picking up a lot of bad habits from the UK and US where people who have a different view are somehow personalised, demonised or polarised. It is important that we remember that having a different view is not just a feature of a free society; it is its very essence. Long may that continue.

On the points of agreement, I was glad to hear the Tánaiste say - and Deputy Tóibín picked up on this - that we need to provide more funding. There is general acceptance of that. The Tánaiste mentioned €1.5 billion per year as a target by 2028. This is at January 2022 prices and taking inflation into consideration. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, probably said it best when he said he expected the target figure should be €2 billion per year by 2028. That is a good target. It is important to highlight that we are going to undershoot €2 billion, which is a vital amount. It is necessary from a catch-up funding point of view due to the chronic under-investment of recent decades.

There was also very good consensus on maritime security. There is a concept of sea blindness where we do not look beyond the horizon. We are very vulnerable at sea. I am from farming stock, as is the Minister of State, Deputy Browne. I spoke to a farmer who had a great way with words. At the coffee break, he said he now understood that there is a hole in the fence and we have to fix it. He described how vulnerable we are from an energy point of view. Ireland has three gas pipelines coming into the country, two from Scotland and one from the Corrib field, and we have two electricity interconnectors. He said that, basically, we have three garden hoses and two extension leads connecting Ireland to the rest of the world. If any of those five elements or components go down, the lights will go off in Ireland. That is a very good summary.

I welcome that we got two new C-295 aircraft. They arrived in the last few months and have certainly helped the Air Corps maritime squadron. I welcome also the increase in offshore allowances last week for the Naval Service. However, we really need to get ships out there, regenerate the Naval Service and get our people out on the high seas.

There is a general consensus that there is a massive underrepresentation in the UN of countries from the southern hemisphere, especially in the Security Council. There was general disagreement that it should not be five permanent members and that they should not have the veto. Has the UN reached its League of Nations moment? That is the question for the Minister. Can it be reformed, tweaked or changed? There certainly seems to be resistance to it. Can it be changed or do we need a brand new organisation to take over global affairs?

I agree with Deputy Howlin that one of the reasons there is such a vehement argument about neutrality is that no one agrees on what it is. There are different views on neutrality. To me it is very simple, that we do not join a military alliance, enter a common security and defence arrangement but that we co-operate extensively with our neighbours, friends and partners on a case-by-case basis when it is in Ireland's interest to do so. By all means do not join an alliance or join a common defence clause, but everything up to and excluding those two things is on the table. That is a good way to go.

I welcome that the triple lock is at least being reviewed and look forward to a debate that teases it out properly.

I thank Professor Richardson for her great work over the last number of months. It was not easy. I wish her well with her future endeavours. I welcome that the national security strategy will be published in the coming months, as the Tánaiste announced. I have been screaming for it for a while. I welcome the establishment of the national security authority. Which Department will the new national security authority be nested in? Will it be the Department of the Taoiseach, Justice or Defence?

See this speech in context