Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirleach, agus comhghairdeachas, and also to Senator Wilson, the father of the House. I remember on being elected that Senator Wilson gave me some great advice. He said, "It was talking got you in here and it is talking that could get you out." Wise words of advice. On the subject of geography, we have two Senators from Tallaght. I think I am the only Senator from Finglas. I wanted to put down that marker. Continuing on the subject of geography, last week I had the privilege of doing some parliamentary business that brought me up to Slieve League in Donegal, across to Derry, to Bishop's Gate, and from there to Coleraine, across to Ballycastle, down the coastline from Cushendun to Cushendall and all the way down through Belfast, right down to the Border. Senator Conor Murphy has left. I am very familiar with Camlough and Carrickcruppen Road. It was the first place I ever rode a horse. I will explain that at some point in the future. What struck me about that journey in the run-up to this day was that we may have temporary partition on this island but we are one island, indivisible.

When I was growing up in Finglas I had three older sisters, beautiful, assertive, occasionally violent. We used to play hide and seek. I will never forget their phrase was "Ready or not, here we come." For the lifetime of this Seanad, we are here in a number of particular contexts. One of them is "Ready or not." We are embarked on an unstoppable journey now to an all-island solution. If we prepare for it, it will be an incredible extension and expression of our great peace process. In order to do that, we have to prepare. We have to engage and talk to everybody. We must reach out to the over 1 million people on this island who are frightened because of the lack of engagement and the lack of clarity about what we intend for this island. If there is anybody here who thinks that we can simply extend our territorial jurisdiction to Thirty-two Counties with the Constitution that we have and the flag that we have, they are very much mistaken. If we prepare, this could be a great example of a peace process, a constantly evolving, improving iteration of peace. If we do not prepare for it, if we say "Not now", I can guarantee that our children and grandchildren will pay a very high price. We should never take the peace on this island for granted.

While I am on the subject, I served in Óglaigh na Éireann on this island prior to the ceasefires. I am very proud to say that I commanded troops in armed support operations in places like the Monaghan salient up to the Border with Northern Ireland, and north of Dundalk where the permanent British Army vehicle checkpoint used to be, watching the Wessex helicopters coming down where the RUC could not travel by road. I saw the absolute chaos, mayhem and anarchy that brought. After being elected, during the last Seanad term, I discovered that I was on a joint Oireachtas committee with a man who was being extradited to London to face charges and that I had been in the armed party. He was subsequently acquitted of the charges. What a journey the peace process has brought us on to think that not just metaphorically but literally I held my colleague at gun-point not that long ago, and here were sitting together in a committee and working constructively to assist Irish citizens.That is the spirit in which all in this House should operate. We should all embrace one another. I have to say that I am sometimes disheartened by some of the cheap shots aimed at some Members of this House. We are all entitled to be here. It believe it was Senator Comyn who said that, no matter what pathway has brought us here, we are all entitled to be here. We should all do business together.

There were two referendums after the Good Friday Agreement, both north and south of the Border, and we are all part of the same political family, notwithstanding what may have happened in the past. I say that having been a participant in the conflict. Those who have never participated in a conflict and never had to face the associated challenges should be careful with their words because the peace process is precious. It is in this House and it runs through both Houses, and we will have a very onerous responsibility in the years to come.

I served in the Middle East in command of Irish troops and witnessed in the mid-1990s the slaughter of men, women and children at first hand. We have seen in the past year and a half the mass killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children. This is the context in which we convene here today and sit as an Upper House in one of the oldest parliamentary democracies in the world – one of 14, as the Cathaoirleach told us. There is now a President of the United States who, after witnessing the slaughter of the innocents, is prepared to ethnically cleanse 2 million people from Gaza and expel them against their will to other countries in the Middle East. We have serious challenges but I will say this: Hezbollah and the IDF have committed war crimes and both have murdered Irish peacekeepers, as recently as the Christmas before last, but we kept open our lines of communication with Hezbollah and spoke to the Israelis, including the IDF. No matter what the challenges are in Washington or other parts of the world, we must always keep a line of communication open to the people we disagree with most, because that disagreement is where the engine for truth and peace lies. That is why I reiterate that cancelling the other because they are different or have a different point of view is destructive and toxic to peace. I wish our Taoiseach the very best of luck when he gets to Washington. I hope he does. I compliment our Cathaoirleach on all the connections that have been forged between Ireland and the US. We must work on those connections and relationships, especially now, a time of turbulence and flux.

I have worked as a peacekeeper, as an interparliamentary representative on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and as a journalist and security analyst for The Irish Timesfor 15 years and latterly for The Journal. I travelled all around the world throughout the global war on terror to places like Iraq, Syria and Guantanamo Bay. More recently, for the past 20 years, I have worked as an academic who publishes in peer-reviewed publications on military and defence matters. In all my time in these roles, I have not once met anybody who queries, resents or interrogates our militarily neutral status. Last year, I gave the keynote speech at the National Defence Academy, Austria, where there were military and political leaders from all over the European Union, including members of NATO. Not one of them raised any question about Ireland's military neutrality. Over recent months, I have heard a parade of so-called experts and pundits on all Irish media platforms suggesting a false narrative that there is an issue with our military neutrality. I tell you now that there is not. I can also tell you the value of our militarily neutral status. As our diaspora all around the world and any of us who have travelled will tell us, it can mean the difference between life and death.We are very much respected in the world. I decry the so-called academics, who should be ashamed of themselves, who suggest that we should somehow have an inferiority complex. One economist now turned security analyst suggested last week that we buy American weapons and liquid gas in order to appease President Trump. I put it to the House that Denmark is a full member of NATO and has spent hundreds of millions of kroner on American weapons systems, but that has done nothing for its possession of and relationship with Greenland, with France even offering to send troops to Greenland to help protect it from American interests. We must never appease tyranny, whether that tyranny be in Moscow or among a small but dangerous coterie of people in Washington.

While we must never renounce our military neutrality, we need to seriously invest in our defence, which is a matter that has been touched upon by others in the House. In particular, the men and women who make up our soldiers, sailors and air crew need to have a proper standard of living and their service needs to be respected.

I am here for one reason only. I am from Finglas, but I was elected, as Senator Ruane said, by a constituency of Trinity graduates that is nationwide and all over the UK, the United States, Canada and Australia. It is a big constituency. Those people elected me, but I do not act in their interests. I act with their authority to support carers and disabled citizens, who are all over Ireland. Some Senators are carers or will become carers, but every single one of them, according to the World Health Organization, will become disabled at some point in their lives. The average human being is disabled for eight to ten years of his or her life, normally at the end of life but very often by way of illness, stroke, acquired brain injury, road traffic accident, you name it. I am here for one reason only and that is our experience as a family of disability and caring. Ireland is the worst country in the European Union in which to have a disability. We are outliers in terms of human rights legislation when it comes to disability. This is our Legislature. This is our Parliament. Now that I have the Senators all together - I am addressing the Government side of the House particularly because I know I enjoy the full support of everyone in the Opposition - I am asking each and every single one of them to please support my disability rights Bill, which would bring Ireland into line with the rest of the European Union. I introduced the Bill in the previous Seanad term. I am going to reanimate it and will ask each and every Senator to support me in that. I will approach each and every Senator on an individual basis. Let us do the right thing; is féidir linn. We can do the right thing. I see the former Minister of State, Senator Rabbitte. She is a great colleague with whom I had a great working relationship and I know she supports my legislation. I prevail upon Members at their parliamentary party meetings to support that simple legislation, which would transform the lives of disabled citizens. I also have legislation on disability rights in terms of personalised budgets, which would hand the control over their lives to disabled citizens and carers, take us away from the charity model and anachronistic, out-of-step approach to carers and disability rights in this Republic and bring us into line.

I offer my congratulations to every Senator who has been elected - those who have been returned and those who are here for the first time. I echo what my great Trinity colleague, Senator Ruane, said, in that we in this House can have an impact. Even one Independent Senator can have a measurable impact on Irish society. The power we can wield is greater than the sum of its parts, but only if we work together collectively and constructively for the common good of the Irish people.