Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In 2016, the EU President, Jean-Claude Juncker, called for an EU security union with the end goal of establishing a European army. The basis of PESCO is that it obliges participating states to agree to the principle of a single force, to increasing their military spending to reach specific targets and to provide troops for EU combat missions. It is intriguing to see President Jean-Claude Juncker's tweet about PESCO, and I quote.

She is awake, the Sleeping Beauty of the Lisbon Treaty: Permanent Structured Cooperation is happening. I welcome the operational steps taken today by Member States to lay the foundation of a European#DefenceUnion.

Membership of PESCO obliges the State to increase military spending from 0.6% of GDP to 2% of GDP. Ireland has been a net contributor to the EU budget since 2014 and as such will also be a net contributor to the European defence fund, which will get €500 million annually from the EU budget. This sum will rise to €1 billion every year after 2020. Overall military spending in EU countries totals €200 billion annually and when one puts that in the context of the 100,000 people drowning in the Mediterranean, then the shameful practice of PESCO forces in driving migrants back to Libya, back to the coast, where they have every prospect of being imprisoned, raped, tortured and even sold is shameful. We have further evidence of that at the Council of Europe, which I referred to earlier.

The Irish people were never asked to endorse involvement in PESCO. The costs of involvement were never spelled out. Government expenditure on a priority such as PESCO will be to the increasing disadvantage of social needs, such as housing, education and health. To add particular insult to injury, this is being done at a time when many members of the Defence Forces and their families are forced to rely on social welfare benefits to augment their income.

I ask for a debate on this issue in the new year.