Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is mór ag muintir na hÉireann ár neodracht. An tseachtain seo caite, d'fhógair an Tánaiste go bhfuil sé le laghdú a dhéanamh ar neodracht le deireadh a chur leis an nglas triarach atá againn leis an UN. Cuireann Sinn Féin ina choinne seo. Is láidreacht í ár neodracht agus ba chóir í a chosaint. The Irish people cherish our neutrality. It is a policy and principle that has enhanced our reputation. It has provided a platform for Ireland to promote peace, to resolve conflict and to pursue justice in international affairs. In a world that is growing more uncertain, more polarised and more dangerous, our neutrality is more important than ever.

Last week the Tánaiste announced his intention for the Government to remove the triple lock, a keystone of our military neutrality. This is a significant and regrettable U-turn by the leader of Fianna Fáil. When Fine Gael sought to undermine our neutrality, the Tánaiste rightly said that there was no reason whatsoever to change our policy on neutrality. Such a change, he said, would contribute nothing to international peace. Instead, he said that Fine Gael should acknowledge what we have achieved because of our neutrality and set out a policy to strengthen it rather than undermine it. The Tánaiste even said that the argument which claimed that the triple lock allowed certain members of the UN Security Council to have a veto on our peacekeeping activities was "nothing more than an out-of-touch ideological obsession". He said that it ignored the facts of Ireland's international standing. Those arguments that he made still remain valid. He should listen to his former self.

The position of the Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil has dramatically changed. There are no grounds whatsoever to undermine our neutrality and that is what he is planning to do by scrapping the triple lock. If the Tánaiste is to push down the accelerator and undermine Irish neutrality following his and his party's U-turn, he needs to come clean. He needs to tell the Irish people where he would deploy Irish troops that is not part of a UN peacekeeping mission. Maybe the Minister of State opposite me will answer that question but I expect that he will not because the Government does not want to show its real hand or real agenda here. The real problem with our defence policy is the fact that our Defence Forces are under-resourced and underpaid. This motion calls for the Government to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution, to refer any proposed changes on neutrality, including the triple lock, to the people in a referendum and most important, to adequately fund and support our Defence Forces, which serve us so well.

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