Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I take this opportunity to welcome home the highly trained peacekeepers of the 122nd Infantry Battalion who returned from south Lebanon at the weekend. It was genuinely uplifting to see their families welcome them home. I wish them all the best as I do those of the 123rd Infantry Battalion who are rotating in at the most dangerous time for decades in the Middle East, while the EU gives full support to the slaughter of Palestinian people and smugly and brazenly continues to justify that mass slaughter as defence.

The Tánaiste's decision to tinker with and get rid of the triple lock is the wrong one. It is part of the Government's ambition to weaken and eventually jettison our neutrality. However, no matter how much tinkering the Tánaiste does, the majority of people are still intent on being militarily neutral because they know it is a strength and not a weakness. They know it is a value and not an embarrassment. If there are any changes to the triple lock, it must be the people who decide, not the Government and its hawkish supporters.

While we respect that our partners and allies are entitled to their opinions, we are mature and serious enough to keep our own stance and views. If one word signifies why Ireland needs to keep its independent voice and position on foreign policy, that word is "Gaza". By tinkering with the triple lock, the Government quietens that voice and dilutes our military neutrality. In short, it could turn our proud peacekeepers into active participants in a conflict, perhaps on the side of partners and allies who spent the past 50 days not only excusing and facilitating genocide, but arming it. The Tánaiste already got his answer from the Defence Forces when he withdrew our UNIFIL peacekeepers from the Golan Heights to prioritise his pet project of an EU battlegroup; only 35 signed up for it. What will it take for the Tánaiste to see that Irish soldiers, like the Irish people, want to keep the peace and do not want to fight other people's wars? Instead of pushing them into war, we need to resource them, pay them and value them so they can do the job they want and need to do, protecting our skies and cyberspace. I urge the Government to heed the majority on the triple lock and neutrality and work for them and not for anyone else.

This will need a referendum.

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