Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on the motion. I pay tribute to People Before Profit for bringing it forward, rather than the Social Democrats. There has never been a more important time to protect and preserve Irish neutrality, so I support the motion fully.

It is incredible to see the significant U-turn all three Government parties have taken in their views on neutrality. Ten years ago, Deputy Micheál Martin described Fine Gael's attempt to undermine the triple lock as an "out-of-touch ideological obsession on the part of Fine Gael". Now it must be an out-of-touch, ideological obsession on the part of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens. He is actively trying to do away with the triple lock as Minister for Defence. It is not only surprising but disingenuous to voters who were told by Government parties and in the programme for Government that overseas operations would be subject to a triple lock of UN, Government and Dáil Éireann approval. The Minister for Defence has made it clear in recent weeks that the new defence Bill will seek to get rid of the triple lock, openly contradicting the commitments he made to the public four years ago. In reality, the double lock is totally ineffective because the Dáil will do whatever the Government bids it to do. The Government parties will not stand individually as people; they will stand in such a way as to ensure a ministerial position comes calling for them. They will do the Government's bidding. Unfortunately, the Dáil is not independent of the Government, which is a breach of the Constitution. It is supposed to be an independent body in the overall scheme of things but because of the nature of government and how it works in the country, it is not. Effectively, we have a triple lock or nothing.

There is no doubt neutrality is under threat from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens. They are using every opportunity to undermine neutrality and hoodwink the public into agreeing to pieces that erode our neutrality bit by bit until there is nothing left. It is disappointing the Government does not even have the courage to come forward and say what we should do on behalf of the people. It will instead remove it bit by bit and we will wake up one morning and it will be all gone. We will be in the middle of a war and people will wonder how we got here. We will have got here because the Government did not have the courage to say this is what it wanted to do and put that forward. We need to actively ensure we do not sleepwalk into a situation nobody wanted or asked for. That is exactly what would happen if it were up to the Government, as proved by the consultative forum on international security, which was clearly an attempt to skew the public towards questioning our neutrality and towards the legislation to remove the triple lock that will come through the Dáil in the next few months.

Neutrality is essential to ensuring a peaceful resolution to disputes across the globe. We could, and should, play a significant role in facilitating this. We should not take direction from Europe, which has no interest in peace or progress and only wishes to conform to German and French military policy. We have nothing to add to military policy or might; what we have is a long-standing and well-respected neutral stance over the years and an honourable role we could and should expand on. Our focus should be on creating links between Europe and Third World countries and expanding our peacemaking capabilities. Ireland is recognised throughout the Third World as a former colony and one of the few members of the European Union that is a former colony and that understands at heart what former colonial countries feel. We could bring that to the heart of the European Union and to the former colonial masters, and put an alternative view there. That would be more valuable and worthwhile than blindly following Germany and France's views on military matters.

Our focus should be on looking after people at risk, taking in refugees and ensuring they have access to travel and a secure place to go. We will bring far more to a crisis by providing such assistance than we ever could through military assistance, though we could provide plenty of manpower for the European army, which is probably what the focus will be on in time to come. The focus should always be on assisting those affected, and this focus is taken away when military gain becomes the main priority. This would be the case if we were to join NATO or any type of EU military intervention. We need to enhance peace, not destroy it.

The Government amendment states: "under the Air Navigation (Carriage of Munitions of War, Weapons and Dangerous Goods) Orders 1973 and 1989, it is expressly prohibited for civil aircraft to carry munitions of war in Ireland without an exemption to do so by the Minister for Transport[.]" That sounds very good but inspections of aircraft are supposed to take place to ensure the regulations are being followed and there is no record of a single inspection carried out in Ireland since 2020. Why has the Minister not carried out a single inspection in four years? It is probably because he is afraid of America.

The amendment goes on to state: "the process for the granting of such exemptions is robust and includes advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs in respect of international humanitarian law and Ireland's international obligations". How can the Minister stand by this when more than 1,000 such exemptions were granted in 2023 without a single inspection? Most of these exemptions were granted to the United States and Germany, two countries we know are actively arming states such as Israel. There is no record of oversight of items carried on aircraft coming through Ireland. This is outrageous and the Government stating we somehow have "a robust process" is laughable. It might be a robust and good process but the only way to prove that is by doing inspections. If the inspections are carried out and it turns out there are no arms being carried on planes through Shannon, that is well and good and it means our process is being respected by powers around the world. However, we know the reason no inspections are taking place is that weapons are being carried and it is better not to ask than to look for excuses. That is the reality of the situation.

The Tánaiste and Government's amendment is shocking when you think about it. The Tánaiste recognises "Russia's brutal... invasion of Ukraine... has fundamentally changed the geopolitical and security landscape in Europe". What about the brutalisation of the Palestinian people by Israel? That is not even mentioned. It is hard to find a positive in the invasion of Ukraine.

The one positive that has come out of it is that it has really shown the Irish people the hypocrisy in Government and EU policy where everything that Russia does to Ukraine is wrong but we turn a blind eye to everything that happens in Palestine and what the Israelis do. What the Israelis are doing in Palestine is the exact same as what the Russians have been doing in Ukraine. The hypocrisy of this Government and Europe denying that and looking the other way is altogether shocking.

The amendment then uses the words, "in common with other partners in Europe". I would like to know who those other partners are because in reality, Europe has dominated us right from the time we went into Europe. All we have to do is look at my own town and how the fishing industry there has been treated over the years. That is all to do with European domination, right up to Brexit when the French negotiated so that the French fishermen were looked after and they shafted everybody else. This meant that we were shafted once again by our so-called common partners in Europe. That is a load of rubbish.

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