Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

These statements on international security and international trade provide an important opportunity for TDs to have their say. In recent weeks and months, we have had many people speaking here about our neutrality and participation in what is happening across the world. The Tánaiste only recently stated that as far as he is concerned, we need to spend a lot more money on our defence. I agree with him. It is hugely important that money is spent on improvements for people in the Defence Forces and on the equipment needed to bring us up to a standard. At present, we have no standards as things are.

I have serious reservations about sending members of our Defence Forces to countries where there is conflict going on, even if there are peace talks. Many peace talks do not work out, and sending a small number of members of the Defence Forces to certain countries to negotiate and keep the peace there could lead to an awful loss of life among them. Those in the Defence Forces are angry and hurt because they have been mistreated over the years. Successive Governments have failed to deliver for members of the Defence Forces in the context of their everyday lives. We are now suddenly talking about spending an astronomical amount of money to change things around. Where is that money going to be spent? It is not long ago that a Defence Forces helicopter up into the air and the door fell off. It is not long ago that a Russian ship was circling our island within our territorial waters and claiming that it was going to carry out exercises that would perhaps have led to the loss of a massive number of fish. It took the fishermen from Castletownbere to go out and negotiate with the Russians to get them to accept that what they were trying to do was not going to work.

The underwater cables located off our shores are not being properly protected. We need to spend money to protect people from what is going on in this country and from what is happening off our coast. We must ensure that we spend money on our Defence Forces and on protecting our country, while always accepting that we are a neutral country. The one thing we have failed to do over the years is get that point across. We are a neutral country. We do not involve ourselves in other people's wars, but we can certainly voice our opinions.

That brings me on to my next point on international trade. It was recently pointed out to me in West Cork by a very intelligent man who said that the first people to implement any tariffs in this country were the Irish. If you tried to bring a vehicle in from England, you pay something called VRT or some other fancy kind of name. There was no problem putting tariffs on vehicles when it suited us to do so.

I want to move on to the meeting between the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and Donald Trump. I fully agree that he was right to meet with Donald Trump, particularly as we have no hope of resolving any issues if we stand outside the door. Deputy McDonald's stance on this was wrong, as was the stance taken by the SDLP and the Alliance Party.

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