Results 13,121-13,140 of 27,073 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They want an army. The Minister of State can tell us it does not have implications but if the people who are driving this believe it is moving towards an army then that is what it is moving towards. Even the term "battle groups" implies battles yet we speak about peace making and all the rest of it. President Macron speaks of getting feet on the ground in Libya, where military action by...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If the Minister of State was in charge.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: You are not in charge.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Is the Minister of State saying what Juncker said was rubbish?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is not the point I made. It is about binding commitments-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: He did ask me a question.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister of State has managed not to answer the question put by me, Deputy Eamon Ryan and others. Perhaps we might receive a straight "Yes" or "No" answer. Is there any reason we could not join PESCO later? I know that the Minister of State wants us to join it and has said we will have more influence. That is his political perspective. On the formal process of joining PESCO, is it...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We cannot join PESCO if we were to wait until next year?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is not the only question.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would appreciate a straight answer to the question asked. Second, there are 20 binding commitments. There seems to be slippage between the terms "project" and "binding commitment". On what binding commitments mean, the Minister of State says we can opt out of whatever "projects" we want. I am not asking about projects but about the binding commitments to which we will sign up when...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am asking about PESCO. In fairness, the Minister of State is not answering the question I asked.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On arms spending, what commitment are we signing up to in the PESCO arrangement, not the treaty?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That does not explain anything.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It does not.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister of State is really not answering the questions. He answers different questions from the ones we asked.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: No, the Minister of State is just not answering the questions. We have asked four times if we could join PESCO afterwards and he has refused to acknowledge that we could. Failing to answer that simple question is close to misleading the Dáil and the public. I ask the Minister of State another simple question. When did the Government approve this PESCO document and decide that we...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is just-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Absolutely. However, the Minister of State is not admitting that we could just apply in January, February or March. He knows that it is a formality and that we would be accepted. There is absolutely no question of that. We would just apply and be accepted.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Permanent Structured Cooperation: Motion (6 Dec 2017)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Nothing is prohibiting us from applying and being accepted next year. It was agreed on 21 November that we would join PESCO. There were two, possibly three, meetings of the Business Committee at which we discussed arrangements for the Dáil schedule. At no point in any of those meetings did the Government signal that there would be a vote on this matter. That was only indicated on...