David Norris (Independent)

We have known for sometime that the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, has not fully read the treaty. We then discovered the Commissioner has not fully read the treaty and stated that anybody who did would be an idiot. This was glossed over by stating, as I pointed out previously, that Members of the Dáil voted for the treaty not having read it. The Minister for Finance has read it, however, and this is what allows him to commend the treaty.

It has got worse and this is why I want to ask these questions. We now know a member of the Referendum Commission, Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill, does not understand it either. He was asked about neutrality and after some hesitation he stated that action must be consistent with Ireland's policy of neutrality. He then went into the question of moving from unanimity to qualified majority voting and he stated, "It's quite difficult to be precise about what that means. There certainly is not a precision about it whereby we could say it applies to A, B, C or D." I make this point as a preface to asking these questions again. We have a Taoiseach and Commissioner who have not read it and a member of the Referendum Commission who does not understand it. However, the Irish people are expected to vote for it.

We have expanded the Petersberg tasks to include permission to intervene in the war against terror in third countries. This is very worrying. Can we have answers on this? Can we have answers to the questions I asked about the European armaments group, coyly renamed the European Defence Agency, and whether Ireland will be committed to budgetary spending to get into the international arms trade which is the specified intention of the European Defence Agency to go into competition with the United States of America? The Irish people are fully entitled to know this.

I applaud my colleague Senator Bacik for taking her position but I will state this. It will not only be men who are involved in these military adventures. Women will also be involved. Many women in this country will not want us to go down this road. With regard to neutrality——