Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support my colleagues in opposition on the importance of the triple lock to Ireland's neutral status. Many commentators have said that there is no link between them, which is politically and philosophically incorrect. I did some research before I came into the Chamber. In the past 24 days there have been no fewer than 48 opinion and analysis pieces in our broadsheet newspapers and on our national broadcaster, focusing on Ireland's requirement to, as they say, step up to the plate and become a part of Europe's military defence. There used to be an average of about three or four such opinion pieces a year. I know that because I used to write them as defence and security analyst for The Irish Times for over 15 years. This is an intense public diplomacy and lobbying campaign. I know because I used to teach that in TUD for more than 20 years. Many of my former students who graduated now work here in the Oireachtas as journalists and political advisers. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is a duck.

We need to be very careful that our neutrality and our neutral status are not framed in the context of the war in Ukraine or Europe's drive to rearm itself. We absolutely must invest in our defence but we cannot allow a situation whereby any future Government by simple majority can send any number of Irish troops to any conflict anywhere in the world. We might trust the current Government, as I do, but what about a future government? There must be some other mechanism if we are going to take out the triple lock. I have proposed that we have a free vote here on the decision to send troops overseas or perhaps some sort of qualified majority vote.

We cannot house those in Gen Z or Gen Alpha. We have let them down and they are dispossessed. They cannot have the modest ambition of owning or even renting a home. They cannot self-actualise. What are we now doing? We are now prepared to send them overseas to fight. This is an intergenerational betrayal. The issues of our neutrality and the triple lock go far beyond these kinds of pedantic, paternalistic technicalities over who is correct or who is incorrect.It is the major political question of the moment. There have been 48 opinion pieces in 24 days. Do my eyes deceive me? There is a big push and pressure for this idea that we should be ashamed of our neutral status and that our international partners look down on it or are unhappy with it. They are completely and utterly incorrect. The vast majority of these articles are written by people who have never heard a shot fired in anger and who know nothing about what they want to commit our sons, daughters and grandchildren to.