Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As one of those who campaigned very strongly at the time against both the Nice treaty and later the Lisbon treaty, but in particular the Nice treaty, when the then Government passed the second attempt to pass it, when it produced the Seville declarations, or the triple lock as we now know it as, we said this was just trickery by the Government and those who wanted a "Yes" vote. We have been proven right. The Government waited and waited until this opportunity. We all knew at the time that it had no interest in ensuring neutrality was protected. It has voted down every attempt in this Chamber by myself and others to ensure neutrality would be endorsed by the Irish people in a referendum and included in our Constitution because it does not and never had an intention to uphold neutrality.

It is interesting that Micheál Martin, the man who announced the latest reversal, was in government at the time Fianna Fáil endorsed and joined the Partnership for Peace, a NATO organisation. It is very appropriate that NATO was on manoeuvres in Cork in recent days. There is a whole history of this with Fianna Fáil governments. We have heard what Fine Gael governments, and Fianna Fáil governments, have wanted to do since they have been in office. There has been a series of erosions of the standing of Ireland. I do not know what genius thought this was the time to undermine one of the key reasons we have such a standing in the world. We are respected around the world because we are seen as honest brokers and because we are seen as neutral. We are respected because of our peacekeepers around the world and the job they have done, yet some genius called Micheál Martin thinks it is appropriate now to start to unravel that neutrality and all the goodwill our neutrality has created throughout the world.

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