Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too will take this opportunity to wish the Taoiseach well on foot of his announcement today. I had the privilege of working with him in government. Everybody in this House who is called to public service approaches the call to serve this nation to the best of their ability. Whatever is in the future for the Taoiseach, I wish him well.

The ongoing horror of Gaza continues on an hourly basis in the slaughter of men women and children. In his invitation letter to the EU leaders for tomorrow's Council meeting, President Charles Michel states: "The atrocities of the October 7th attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza have crossed the brink of inhumanity." The Council president describes the "catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and raging famine." The world and we in Europe are not just commentators on one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies of our age, we have become active agents to bring about a halt to the killing.

I commend the comments of the Taoiseach in the United States last week coming in tandem with the remarks of Senator Chuck Schumer, a long-standing ally of Israel. I hope they had an impact in the US but I feel they will have no impact on the Netanyahu government. This week Europe must do more. Even the most ardent supporters of Israel know that the nation's onslaught against the entire population of Gaza is a crime against humanity that will stain Israel for generations to come. Europe must be clear and unambiguous that if the threatened assault on Rafah actually takes place - and hourly it is threatened again by the leader of the current Israeli Government - Israel will be a pariah nation in the eyes of the civilised world. I hope that this week the European Council takes an unequivocal and clear stand, demands that no such assault happens, and demands an instant call to peace and an end to hostilities.

I want to make mention of security and defence. Again I refer to President Michel's invitation letter to the leaders of governments for tomorrow's Council. In the invitation letter, he states:

This is also a time for a real paradigm shift in relation to our security and defence. For decades, Europe has not invested enough in its security and defence. Now that we are facing the biggest security threat since the Second World War, it is high time we take radical and concrete steps to be defence-ready and put the EU’s economy on a “war footing".

What will be the Taoiseach's response to that? Both Finland and Sweden have left our neutrals' club and joined NATO. What is the Taoiseach's strategy for setting out Ireland's position on the very clear militarisation the rest of Europe is engaged upon? What pressures does the Taoiseach expect to be exerted on us? Clearly, Ireland has limited military capacity to be of strategic value in a purely military sense but what is the role of neutral Ireland that will be explained to our partners by the Taoiseach? It is imperative that we enunciate effectively and clearly what our neutrality means. I am afraid that I am not heartened by the Taoiseach's remarks when he spoke of the new European defence industrial strategy and a new European defence industry programme for Ireland. He said: "It will be important to engage maturely and constructively in these discussions." I am not sure what that means. He went on to remark on the opportunities for us to exploit saying, "There may also be scope to identify opportunities for Irish industry and research institutions." This is a time for clarity around Ireland's role into the future and I hope he will explain in very clear terms what Irish neutrality means and how it will fit in with this new European agenda.

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