Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to claim that I wrote the following words, but I did not. These are the words of the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, who stated:

It has been reported that the Government [is about to] publish a Green Paper prepared by ... Minister ... Shatter, which will propose that Ireland loosen[s] the triple lock [in relation to] overseas military engagements. This is happening just as the final countries are formally enacting the Lisbon measures which explicitly address[es] ... concerns on this matter. It appears that Fine Gael is arguing that Ireland is failing in its ... responsibilities and [that we are] allowing Russia and China to have a veto over our peacekeeping activities. This is nothing more than an out-of-touch ideological obsession on the part of Fine Gael which ignores the facts of Ireland’s international standing. Few countries in the world are held anywhere near the esteem [that there is for] ... Ireland ... because of [how often we participate] in peacekeeping and the wonderful work of our soldiers and gardaí. [We do not enter these] missions ... easily but [we do] so wholeheartedly and with real impact. The current policy works ... it has complete popular legitimacy. There is no reason whatsoever to change it. [It will] impress no one in Europe and it will contribute nothing to international peace. Instead of sniping at our neutrality, the Government should acknowledge what we have achieved because of it and set out a policy to strengthen [it] ... [not] undermine it.

I ask people to listen to the words uttered by Deputy Micheál Martin, the flip-flop Tánaiste, last week. I wonder why he would make such a massive change in his policy. He should stand by his words from 2013.

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