Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin supports the motion. It is welcome and timely. We were colonised and know what it is like to struggle for freedom against a foreign invader. The principle of neutrality is a fundamental republican principle and was one of the cornerstones of the foundation of the Irish State.

The Irish people set great store in our neutrality. It is a point of pride that our troops have only ever gone abroad to help to quell conflicts and bring an end to war and division. Indeed, Ireland's primary objective internationally should always be to facilitate the resolution of war and conflict. Successive Irish Governments have allowed that principle of neutrality to be eroded. It was Fianna Fáil that signed us up to the Partnership for Peace, seen by many as a stepping stone towards NATO membership. Only the staunch resistance of the Irish people to any such move has prevented later Governments from taking the leap. Fine Gael has in the past described neutrality as a sham and has consistently voted in Europe to roll back any obstacle to Ireland's participation in an increasingly militarised Europe, something we were told was only some fringe conspiracy theory during the Lisbon treaty debates.

The Government will tell us that the triple lock is too restrictive and prevents the Defence Forces from carrying out their duties to protect the State and the Irish people. This is nothing more than a smokescreen. All we need to do is to further expand the existing legislative framework to include circumstances such as the rescue of an Irish hostage abroad and repatriation, close protection for Irish officials in conflict zones and drug interdiction in waters just outside Ireland's territorial waters. This way we can strengthen the triple lock rather than overturning it.

On the substance of the motion and the calls for a plebiscite, my preference would be to incorporate neutrality into the Constitution. That has been a long-standing policy of Sinn Féin. I cosponsored a Bill on a constitutional referendum to that end in 2013. There are Members on the Government benches today who voted against that legislation then and would surely vote against it now because they do not want Ireland to be a neutral country. A citizens' assembly should be established with a view to bringing a wording for the constitutional amendment to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution so the Government of the day may not run roughshod over the opinion that Irish people have expressed over and over again, which is that Ireland should not be a member of this club.

See this speech in context