Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not keep the Minister of State long. I will be brief. I was born on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising. Fifty years on from that I was born into a republic that could have been characterised as one of a pitchfork and candlestick. Ireland was quite a poor country in European terms. In the 1970s after we joined the European Economic Community, as it was then, it transformed Ireland on a number of fronts in everything from environmental protections to equal status and equality legislation. It really brought Ireland into the 20th century. As we enter the 21st century in the wake of Brexit we are the only English-speaking country in the European Union so we are a vital part of the transatlantic link between the United States and Europe which was traditionally there and in which Britain was traditionally the linchpin. There is a great opportunity for us there.

In the 1980s Europe really opened up. The Berlin Wall came down followed by the reunification of Germany. Ireland played a particular role in that process and helped to accelerate it and bring it together. I will return to the unification of the GDR and West Germany in a moment.

We had a major problem on the island. There was an internal security problem that many of us may have forgotten about in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and the peace dividend that we have all enjoyed so far. It was one of the reasons I joined the Defence Forces back in the 1980s. It was because Ireland was a basket case economically but also from a security and defence perspective. Happily due to the Good Friday Agreement, the peace process and everything that has gone on we have enjoyed a peace dividend but we really need to look to Europe for the lessons of its peace processes and conflicts to predict what might happen next on this island because I believe we are on the precipice of great change on the island, particularly after the events in Northern Ireland over the weekend with the changing demographics and the change in voting patterns.

As an Army officer I was proud to serve Ireland in the Middle East in the mid-1990s. Part of the culture shock for me was the experience of conflict for the first time. During my tour of duty there was a very violent deployment of the Israelis into Lebanon, Operation Grapes of Wrath, which resulted in the mass murder of hundreds and hundreds of innocent Lebanese men, women and children in much the same way as is happening in Ukraine at the moment. There was indiscriminate shelling, air strikes, missile attacks and so on.It made me appreciate, as a young man, the value of the peace we enjoy in Europe. That was the raison d'être of the European Union or the European Economic Community, as it was in the beginning. Its original architects wanted an ongoing peace process for Europe. We must be very careful not to take that peace for granted.

After Lebanon I went to Bosnia just at the end of that conflict as an election supervisor. I was based in a Serbian-held area in a town called Prijedor, which I believe holds the record for the highest number of crimes against humanity and war crimes anywhere in Europe. Again, it was quite clear to me the Serbs, the Croats and those now referred to as Bosniaks or Bosnian Muslims were all wonderful communities made up of great people but conflict arose around historical reasons, going right back to the Ottoman Empire. There were issues around identity, difference and othering that brought them first into public disorder and civil disturbance and then to killing. Once the cycle of killing starts, it is very difficult to stop it. Those groups now have a power-sharing agreement.

This brings me back to my first point. I have recently heard some politicians, journalists and commentators say that what happens next on this island will be akin to the reunification of West Germany and East Germany. I do not agree with that assessment, based on my life experience and what I have experienced in Europe and elsewhere. The position on this island is more akin to what I would have encountered in the former Yugoslavia and Bosnia. We must be very careful, as Europeans, about how we proceed. In 15 or 20 years, for example, I do not believe An Garda Síochána or Óglaigh na hÉireann will exist. They will have been replaced by something like "police service Ireland" or "land forces Ireland". Who knows? We must plan for this as Europeans.

Who is preparing for and thinking about all the architecture and infrastructure around the administration of justice, policing, security and defence, as well as public expenditure and reform, social protection, education and health? If we do not plan for those on this island, if we do not speak about them or have a citizens' assembly, we may fail our children and grandchildren, if precedents in Europe tell us anything. If we prepare and plan, Ireland and what happens on this island could be a major international success. We need to think hard about that.

Based on events in Ukraine, it is great that Ireland is providing political and material support. I echo Senator Maria Byrne's comments about supporting the accelerated entry of Moldova and Ukraine into the European Union. Now is not the time for Ireland to join a military alliance. Our unique influence, including our diplomatic and diaspora's influence, would immediately disappear on our joining any military alliance. As a fan of Europe, I wish the European project well in the coming years. For the first time since the Second World War it must stand together for its values and its principles.