Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There has been much discussion over the last few days about Ireland's neutrality and the Russian exercise off the south-west coast. I ask somebody to show me an Act of Parliament from this or any government that states that Ireland is a neutral country. Show me in the Constitution where it states that Ireland is a neutral country. Where can we find a reference to Ireland's neutrality anywhere in State legislation? We cannot. We are not a neutral country. We never have been. If we want to talk about neutrality, two things must happen. First, we have to go to the people of this country and enshrine it in our Constitution and, second, we have to fund the Defence Forces and security systems of this country to protect that neutrality. I asked for a debate some time ago on neutrality and I ask for it again. It is time we had it.

The second issue I wish to raise this morning is that of Government and governance. I look at the responsibilities that are laid out for Ministers and no organisation outside of this one would expect anybody to take on the level of responsibility we are asking Ministers to take on. Ministers have multiple portfolios in which they are covering multiple issues, for instance, climate, transport and communications with one Minister and Foreign Affairs and Defence with another.

The responsibilities the Government Chief Whip has are just unbelievable. He is the Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media with special responsibility for Gaeltacht affairs and sports and Minister of State at the Department of Defence as well as being Government Chief Whip. How in God's name do we expect one individual to provide the oversight that is required to manage that amount of a portfolio? It is time that we looked at the structure of Government. If that means going back to the people in order to be able to extend the number of junior Ministries we have, then let us do that. Let us stop trying to pretend there is political oversight, however. I would, therefore, like a debate with the Taoiseach on the issue of Government and governance and how we intend to manage the country going forward. We live in a very complex economy now and we need very different responses to what we had when this was all set up.