Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

We certainly do not and there is no proposal to join NATO or anything like it. I value military neutrality. Understanding and debating what it means, though, is very useful. It means being militarily unaligned but one can be militarily unaligned and still take national security and defence seriously. I accept there are very different views in the House on the terms, conditions and parameters on which we decide to deploy personnel abroad for peacekeeping. The Deputy is right that we have to get to a point. We are about to set up an Oireachtas committee on national security and I really welcome that. The Deputy's party leader, Deputy Bacik, makes the point - and I agree fully - that we need a much greater and more honest exchange among Government and Opposition. We do not talk about it enough. We should be able to have informed conversations that do not simply run into an alleyway because all we talk about is neutrality. We may all have different views but we all agree on military neutrality. I certainly agree military neutrality is important but we should enable ourselves to have the space to talk about it. We are militarily neutral but what do we need to do to give the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann the equipment they need to keep this country safe and to have access to good information? We know about the shadow fleet. If, God forbid, anything ever went wrong, the Deputy would be asking me much more difficult questions on why we did not go down this route.

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