Results 1,041-1,060 of 1,088 for speaker:Tom Clonan
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: Does Mr. Andrews think there is a link between that and the triple lock?
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: I thank Mr. Andrews.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: I welcome our esteemed witnesses. I have served with all of them, at the Chief of Staff's branch and overseas. I learned so much under Colonel Doyle's command. It was on his watch that we had the first ever visit by a Taoiseach to Irish troops overseas, following an initiative and direction from the colonel. I commend him. It is great to see him looking so well. We are driving the...
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: The unanimous response would appear to be that the majority of, if not all, potential future missions, outside of a triple lock or a UN Security Council resolution, will be warfighting.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: As defence intellectuals, however, we know that peace enforcement and warfighting are the same thing.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: With respect, the literature shows that they are one and the same thing, because of the use of force. I will come back to Dr. Berry later. What is the maximum formation that Ireland can meaningfully deploy overseas at the moment? Is it a platoon, a company or a brigade? We are very short on time so a one-sentence reply will suffice.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: So a battalion is four hundred and-----
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: My question is very specific. What is the maximum formation that we can deploy meaningfully without support from other nations? Is it a company?
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: Okay. If it is a company-plus or a battalion-minus, is it not the case that in a peace enforcement or war-fighting context such a unit would inexorably and organically be under the command of another nation? It could not operate independently.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: Understood. My final question is in relation to this issue of the 12. The Department of Defence confirmed to us a number of weeks ago that this upper limit of 12 does not apply to situations of force majeure where, for example, we have to evacuate Irish citizens from abroad, or if we were to provide aid to the civil authority of our neighbours in the UK or in Northern Ireland if it had...
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: The triple lock, therefore, does not place any inhibition on us and our sovereign decision to assist a neighbour when they are in extremis.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: That is what the Department of Defence clarified. It said that if we need to get citizens out of Sudan, Kabul, Tehran or wherever, the upper limit of 12 does not apply and the triple lock actually has nothing to do with that.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: I am just saying that because to invoke it as a reason to dispense with the triple lock is actually a red herring. I did not hear all of the contributions because, unfortunately, I had a constituent who was in crisis. I did catch the end of some remarks where there was a suggestion that the upper limit of 12 would have an impact on the number of people we could put in an aircraft or the...
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: I am equally surprised by it. In fact, I would have raised it to 120. The number of 50 seems quite arbitrary.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: It is very important so that Irish people understand our international service as peacekeeping, whether that be with the UN, the EU or Partnership for Peace. It is becoming clear to me that in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution the vast majority of future operations will be peace enforcement, which is quite a different thing-----
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)
Tom Clonan: -----and under international command. That is a very significant-----