Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government explicitly commits this Government to fully maintaining neutrality and the triple lock. In 2013, Deputy Micheál Martin, the current Tánaiste who wants a Bill brought before the Dáil to get rid of the triple lock, argued that the triple lock is at the core of our neutrality and he refused to accept the argument that it gives a veto to Russia over our peacekeeping activities. The Taoiseach will remember the triple lock was brought in as an amendment to the Nice treaty to get people to vote for that treaty in 2001. Since then, a veto has never been used to block any peacekeeping activities. It is a distortion to say that is the reason. Instead, the Government is doing whatever it takes to try to drag Ireland into a pact of EU militarisation. Now the triple lock is to go, despite the commitment made to it in the programme for Government. I will repeat the question that was asked earlier. Will the Taoiseach stick to the programme for Government and the mandate he has? If he cannot do that, he should give the people a chance to vote in a referendum on whether Ireland wants to keep its neutrality fully intact, triple lock included.

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