Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I thank him for making himself available once again to discuss our defence and neutrality. I also thank the Independent group, in particular Senator Clonan, for tabling what is a very important Private Members' motion that the Labour Party is very glad to support.

The illegal, unwarranted and unacceptable invasion of Ukraine by Russia has given some commentators and political parties a reason to raise the question of our neutrality at this time. This motion gives us all a chance to put on record our positions on neutrality. On behalf of the Labour Party, I welcome that opportunity. As I stated during the debate on the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces that we had in this House with the Minister in October, our neutrality demands investment. I welcome, as have Members on all sides, that the motion acknowledges this. It is important to state once again that being militarily neutral should not be confused with military impotence. I again find myself agreeing with my colleague, Deputy Howlin, who, in a similar debate on the commission's report in the Lower House in February, stated: "Neutrality is a truly important principle that I believe commands the majority support of our people but we need to define what we mean by it and truly invest in it." That majority support would seem to be backed by The Irish Timespoll in April, when two thirds of respondents indicated that they support the current model of neutrality.

There can be no doubt that our neutrality has, as the motion states, been a central and invaluable component of our foreign policy since the foundation of the State. It is true to say that same neutrality has underlined our State as an independent and impartial voice for peace, which has allowed our highly regarded diplomats and successive Government to be that voice for reason, a voice for the de-escalation of conflict, and a valued and trusted partner in conflict resolution. It is a voice that would be lost or severely diminished if we were ever to join some of the military alliances that have been mentioned in the past number of weeks and months. Our neutrality has allowed our renowned peacekeepers to partake in UN-sanctioned peacekeeping and peace enforcement missions on the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. These missions have given us an international reputation as a peacekeeping force, which so many of us are rightly proud of. It is also important to acknowledge those who have served in those missions and it is always important to acknowledge those who have lost their lives serving in the name of this State on such missions.

The Labour Party supports the retention of the triple lock and has concerns about any attempts to undermine or change it. As a country, we have retained the political discretion to support international communities in crisis without needing to be part of any military alliance. We believe that is a position we must maintain. During our debate last month, I spoke about investment in the Defence Forces and the level of ambition, LOA, 2 outlined in the commission report, which we said we supported and continue to support. The motion proposes properly funding Ireland's Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and cyber capabilities in order to protect our neutral status and secure our land, sea, maritime, cyber, and air domains. It is an ambition the Labour Party also supports. In fairness, I acknowledge the Minister's contribution during that debate when he mentioned that we, as a State, could spend €2 billion on our Defence Forces by 2028. This is the level of ambition we must have to protect our neutrality in order for this State to know who or what may be using our airspace or territorial waters. We believe we can achieve that protection. I would appreciate it if the Minister could update us during his response on where we are with the implementation report and the independent chair he spoke about previously. Unfortunately, we did not get to talk to him about that as time ran out on the previous occasion.

Several people have contacted me regarding the quality of the advertising campaign, which I also acknowledge, currently running for recruitment to our Defence Forces. I agree with those people. The campaign shows a professional career path that, I hope, many will follow. Indeed, we need many to follow it. However, there are still issues with retention and recruitment, as mentioned by other speakers. I mentioned some of those issues on the last occasion we spoke. I acknowledge the work the Defence Forces representative associations, PDFORRA and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, have done and completed on working on these issues, including working with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, on achieving increases in pay and allowances in line with public service pay agreements, providing for a 6.5% increase over 2022 and 2023 for those in our Defence Forces.

There is work to be done on recruitment and retention. I again mention the need to look at army barracks to provide accommodation for new recruits, given the current housing crisis we are in. We can, should and could make a career in the Defence Forces more attractive by providing accommodation for those who need it most. Some of the people I deal with continually are young people who want to join the Defence Forces but are struggling with housing. I again raise the issue of the Curragh Army barracks, which has been raised by other colleagues, and the need to provide housing there. It would make a difference. I ask the Minister to look at that again.

We also need to look at the level of female participation in the Defence Forces. When will the report on that particular issue be made public? The ambition in the Commission on the Defence Forces report allows for many more women to partake in the Defence Forces so we need to look at that particular report. An update on that would be very welcome.

We are very happy to support-----