Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

With regard to some of the comments made earlier, the triple lock is actually one of the very important things that link us to the United Nations, which is one of the great prizes we have had in terms of building and maintaining peace on this planet. Far from undermining our capacity to say "No", I would be very worried that without the triple lock those who get so embarrassed that they are not generally part of armies, as we have heard, who feel disapproval from other countries and believe they should act immediately, would be too vulnerable to pressure. The triple lock is actually what protects us from pressure and from being pressured into inappropriate words and inappropriate military action, including military action for interests or resources or some of the many protection rackets that we have seen some using their military for in recent times.The triple lock is a very important protection for us because it allows us to say "No", and that is a part of our sovereignty. We must have a reference to the UN that is proper and not simply interpretable. It should be borne in mind that Israel says it abides by international law. We need an actual anchor into the UN system.

We have heard a lot about military threats, but the threat of climate change has not gone away. Everybody has lost interest in it, but we have just had the ten hottest years on record. Soon we will stop talking about the ten hottest years and we can start talking about the deadliest years, because this is the actual threat in terms of the liveability of our planet in the next decades, not the next centuries. We have a huge backward step today in that the European Commission has published a proposal to completely gut, in the words of our MEPs - indeed, a Fianna Fáil MEP, Barry Andrews, has called it that - the European Green Deal and to gut regulation of corporations, having had private meetings with large corporations such as ExxonMobil and all those who have caused the climate crisis. The EU Commission is now using language like "simplification" to describe its attempt to get rid of many of the key parts of the corporate sustainability due diligence directive. That directive, by the way, was introduced to improve human rights and environmental outcomes, guide companies towards sustainable operations and choices, and provide a level playing field for corporations. This action will punish those largest companies and corporations - it applies only to the largest companies and corporations - that have chosen to try to implement good standards in order to reward the laggards and those who are the drivers of climate change in the first place. We talk about sharing the burden. We cannot place the burden on the poorest of the world and those most vulnerable to climate change in order to chase a United States deregulatory agenda, which is gutting equality and has now left the Paris Agreement. Let us, Europe, stop chasing that and move in the other direction in order that we have a future.