Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I concur with most of my colleagues that there really has been a lack of proper debate on the signing up to PESCO. It was almost forced on us last week. Senator McFadden said that we are opposed to peace and Europe in our statements but, in fact, I am for peace and justice, and I am all for Europe. I want to be very clear about this.

The Green Party campaigned in favour of the Lisbon treaty in 2009 on the basis that structured co-operation on defence issues as laid out in the treaty would be a matter for national opt-in. That was the entire purpose of creating enhanced and structured co-operation in the treaty, that countries that wanted to could forge ahead in areas they wanted, leaving other members to opt out. What particularly concerns me is that the Minister of State said we can decide on a case-by-case basis. This is very open-ended and ambiguous, and causes me great fear. Look at what happened in the past week with pushing through this signing up to PESCO and the lack of debate. Now we will be told on a case-by-case basis that we will partake in all types of potential possibilities that will push against neutrality.

Considering the constitutional and political constraints, it is safe to say most of the Irish electorate would not have considered it likely that future Irish Governments would join up to any such scheme that seems so opposed to our tradition of neutrality. They could now be forgiven for feeling betrayed, particularly at the speed this decision has been made, and with such little consultation. The Government said this decision had to be made before the meeting of EU Defence Ministers on 11 December. Did it not know this in advance? Had it mislaid the agenda for the meeting? I imagine our hard working Brussels-based civil servants would have been quick to highlight an issue of this level of importance. Why did this decision have to be taken at such speed and without proper debate and consultation?

In his defence of our signing up last week, the Taoiseach stressed the need for Europe to take over its own defence from an America that seems increasingly unreliable as a strategic partner. This is a convincing argument on the face of it, but if we are to worry about the efficiency of our defence spending we need to assess where our resources are most effective. We are not a big country. We are certainly wealthy on a per person basis, but our size makes us small in the world of defence spending. Where we are significant and where our currency matters most is as diplomatic and neutral arbiter, an independent voice that can speak to others from a European perspective without being compromised by involvement in binding defence alliances.

What we are speaking about, namely, participation in common defence procurement, some shared command and control and joint military training, sounds just like a defence alliance to me. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, acknowledged as much this week when he tweeted that he welcomed the steps taken by member states to lay the foundations of a European defence union. We are at risk of frittering away our greatest asset, which is our ability to engage at European, UN and peacekeeping levels as an independent, neutral and fair diplomatic presence.

There is a very mixed record of shared defence procurement in Europe to date. We all might remember the ill-fated Eurofighter Typhoon, a project with huge costs and time overruns, which saw the French Government's withdrawal before completion. I have been sceptical of the tendencies that shape anything as large as the national defence procurement systems we see today. Like an aircraft carrier, they are slow to change, deadly when one gets in their way and incredibly expensive.

This has been rushed and there has not been proper debate. It will fly back in the face of the Minister of State because the public is not satisfied with this decision.