Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

As the general secretary of Independent Ireland, I commend everyone in the Defence Forces. I commend everyone in our Army, and everyone who is a protector of Ireland.

I say to those people that I am sorry that this and previous Governments have not treated them with fairness, even on pay and conditions. We have called out our forces to help us in times of crisis. One side of our forces gets treated well. Some had to bring their own sandwiches while the other part of our forces were given food and looked after. Their pay and living conditions while they are protecting us are not fair. The investment we need to put into our Defence Forces needs to be in the people in the Defence Forces first. Then we should put it into equipment that we need for our basic security that has not been updated in years and we need to look after the people in the Defence Forces.

Article 5 of Bunreacht na hÉireann establishes that Ireland is a sovereign, independent, democratic State while Article 6 sets out that all powers of Government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive from the people. Under the Constitution, therefore, sovereignty is vested in the people and consulting us on matters of national interest is not only a legal imperative, it is the cornerstone of democracy.

Democracy was raised yesterday in this Chamber of democracy when we saw what was pushed through the Dáil. That is not democracy. Democracy is open meetings to make sure we come out with a proper result. That was not democracy yesterday.

The failure to consult the people is even more concerning if we consider that in January 2025 a poll showed 75% of Irish people support neutrality. This result was reflected across all groups, regions and political parties, including Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. This indicates the Government has no mandate whatsoever to dismantle the triple lock and attempting to do so without consulting the people is a dangerous subversion of democracy. Again, we are back to democracy. Why do we not take this back to the people of Ireland and ask them whether they want to remove the triple lock? It is because the Government would get a loud and clear message, as was shown in the survey that states 75% of people do not want it removed and that they believe in neutrality. Why is the Government so afraid to take it to the people? People were elected to the House by the people, so why not take it back to the people on the issue of neutrality? I will go back to investment in the Defence Forces. It was mentioned by Deputy Collins, our party leader. We had a helicopter that the door fell off. Will we not look after our Defence Forces and equipment first before we start doing anything else? Look after our own - is there something wrong with that? I do not believe so, but it looks like the Government does.

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