Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I do not trust Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or the Green Party on the issue of Irish foreign policy and steering clear of military alliances. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people at the very least and perhaps more than 1 million. They were fought for the prestige of US imperialism and, in the case of Iraq, oil. They were not fought to keep the world safe from weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons of mass destruction.

Fianna Fáil allowed US warplanes to refuel at Shannon. It started a process whereby Shannon became a de facto forward operating base for the US military. More than 3 million troops have passed through Shannon over the past 21 years. This has not just happened while Fianna Fáil has been in government, though. It has also happened while the late, unlamented Progressive Democrats, the Green Party, the Labour Party and, of course, Fine Gael have been in government.

What about Fine Gael? We are forever being told that Irish foreign policy needs to change now because circumstances have changed, but has Fine Gael’s policy changed that much? In 2003, Fine Gael produced a policy document that called for Ireland to sign up to a European defence structure. Enda Kenny said at the time that Europe was on the brink of mutual defence arrangements and Ireland should join and become one of the states shaping it.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want to sharply increase defence spending and increase military co-operation with European powers and NATO. They deny that they want to take Ireland into full NATO membership, but they understand that Irish public opinion would not stand for that at this point in time. The abandonment of the triple lock is part and parcel of that whole agenda. The Irish people need to be given a say in the matter and I support the call for a referendum.

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