Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On a recent visit to the EU institutions by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, we were informed that security and defence were becoming matters of increasing concern in Brussels. This first emerged following the Russian invasion of Ukraine two years ago and has been added to by Donald Trump's recent remarks about NATO and the defence of Europe. I commend the Taoiseach on defending Ireland's traditional policy of military neutrality at the Munich Security Conference last week when he stressed the importance of peacekeeping and the need to resolve international conflicts through multilateral diplomacy. Obviously, there should be no question of us joining NATO. Would the Taoiseach agree that we need to be fully engaged in the ongoing debate about the EU's common security and defence policy, given the current global situation?

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