Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is desperate stuff from the Tánaiste. I know it is difficult to hear his own words back when Fine Gael tried to do exactly what he is doing and he talked about this ideological nonsense. He talked about undermining Irish neutrality: "Fianna Fáil reaffirms its commitment to the retention of the Triple Lock... prior to committing Defence Forces personnel on overseas service." Those are the words of the Fianna Fáil 2020 general election manifesto, now gone with the wind. "The Government will ensure that all overseas operations will be conducted in line with our position of military neutrality and will be subject to a triple lock of UN, Government and Dáil Éireann approval." That is from the programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Fine Gael. "[T]here is presently no appetite for a change to the current position on Irish neutrality". That is from the report of the chair of the consultative forum that the Tánaiste hoped would provide a preordained move to fundamentally change a foreign policy that has served Ireland well.

The Tánaiste has no mandate from this. He can scratch the bottom the barrel all he wants. I am talking about the future. I am talking about the missions that do not have a UN mandate to which he wants to deploy Irish troops. I am saying to him that he does not have a mandate for that. He never campaigned for that. The programme for Government did not state that. If the Tánaiste is secure in his position, he should put it to the people in a referendum and let them decide whether they want to undermine our neutrality or not.

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