I thank Deputy Stanley for bringing this important motion forward. The Labour Party will support it and I would like to take the opportunity to restate our firm commitment to the principle of military neutrality, the retention of the triple lock and our country’s continued promotion of peace and an end to war. We know the immense human cost of war. We see it on our screens every day from Gaza to Ukraine to Sudan. Aside from the profound human suffering, as our party’s environment spokesperson and this being National Biodiversity Week, it would be remiss of me not to mention the massive environmental, climate and ecological impacts of war that are not spoken about enough. Militaries contribute 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. We know that war is driving deforestation, agricultural decline, industrial pollution and the collapse of health and sanitation systems. We see the destruction of the basic facilities and systems that make human life possible, including water networks, sewage treatment plants, farmland, ports, fuel depots and electricity infrastructure, often leaving polluted air, contaminated soil and unsafe water long after the fighting ends. We see fires, oil spills, toxic debris, damaged sanitation, collapsing public health systems and ecosystems pushed beyond recovery. We all have a human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the promotion of peace internationally, via our neutrality, should be at least one method for our State to pursue this vital right. Neutrality has been central to our foreign policy since the Second World War and it has been an active neutrality. It is an expression of our sovereignty, independent judgement and a belief that small nations such as ours can contribute to peace not through military alliances, but through diplomacy, humanitarianism, peacekeeping and international law. For decades, it has allowed us to carve out a respected position on the world stage precisely because we have refused to become an appendage to a large military power. Our neutrality has stood us in good stead. It is widely supported among the public who have consistently and repeatedly expressed their support for neutrality and continue to do so in every opinion poll on the matter. However, our neutrality is not secure. It does not have constitutional status. The Labour Party has long-supported enshrining neutrality in our Constitution and published a proposed wording for an amendment to this effect as far back as 2002. Our neutrality is a large part of the reason our peacekeepers, of whom we are all immensely proud, are so well-respected and trusted in conflict zones. Members of our Defence Forces have served as peacekeepers with distinction the world over, protecting civilians, monitoring ceasefires, delivering aid and so on. Our reputation for peacekeeping has flourished because of our position as a neutral county. The removal of the triple lock risks undermining that reputation precisely because it risks undermining our neutrality. As the Taoiseach once said, in what I guess was a previous life, it is "the core of our neutrality". The triple lock ensures not only that any overseas engagement is safeguarded against the whims of the Executive or geopolitical pressures, but that its grounded in international law, which itself brings legitimacy, respect and an additional level of confidence in the safety of our Defence Forces personnel who are being deployed. We do not need to look too far to see the disastrous effects of unilateral wars and illegal invasions that bypass international institutions and can start on a whim. This is all playing out in the Middle East right now with Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal attacks on Iran. The Government, in its argument for removing the triple lock, often points to the dysfunction of the UN Security Council and there is some truth to that argument. However, the answer is not just to abandon multilateralism. Right now, international institutions, multilateral co-operation and international law are all under sustained attack and probably have never been more in need of advocates, at least since the Cold War. We should seek to strengthen the credibility of the UN, not weaken our commitment to it. If the Government believes the Security Council requires reform, that is fine; I largely agree. Let us advocate for that reform. What we must not do is retreat from the institution and potentially jeopardise our neutrality in the process. The Government's proposal is that deployments be authorised by the approval of the Government and the passing of a resolution of the Dáil. Assuming that Whips would operate as normal for Government parties and there would not be a free vote on such a resolution, the proposal would mean, in essence, that our Defence Forces could be deployed on the whim of whichever government is in power. No international assent would be required and there would be no further safeguards. It is a deeply concerning prospect and the Government should know that. Ministers can deny it all they want but it leaves the door open to our Defence Forces getting involved in NATO missions, an EU common defence arrangement or some other military composition that would, in effect, spell an end to our neutrality. On the Defence Forces and our defence capabilities more broadly, the Labour Party is a staunch defender of our military neutrality and the triple lock, and always will be. However, we also acknowledge that, politically speaking, when we debate our neutrality, the substance of the debate rarely moves past the triple lock. Its removal would erode our neutrality and risk damaging the unique voice we have in international affairs, whereby we have historically punched well above our weight. What often gets lost, however, is that neutrality is not the same as passivity in terms of the Defence Forces and our defence capabilities. We should not accept that there is a contradiction between our policy of neutrality and investing in our defence. On the contrary, our position of neutrality means it is incumbent on us to ensure we invest in defence. That is how we ensure our sovereignty when it comes to these matters. At present, we rely on the UK, a NATO member, for our air defences. I fear that our neutrality, and an assumption that if worst came to worst, the UK would come to our rescue, has led to a certain level of complacency in building up our own capacity to defend ourselves. We hope we will never have to do so but the reality is we exist in an increasingly unstable and unpredictable geopolitical arena. While we cannot and will not under any circumstances accept a role in a common defence pact or any offensive actions involving Irish troops, we have a responsibility to get our own house in order. The best insurance policy against any external threats to our neutrality is to ensure we have some reasonable defence capabilities. We cannot continue outsourcing our defence. Irish people are realistic about what is possible but we do not want to feel we are defenceless and unable, for example, to monitor our territorial waters and respond to perceived threats. Those threats, to name but a few, might take the form of large-scale drug smuggling operations or potential interference by bad actors in our vital undersea cables or electricity and gas interconnectors. Our neutrality will become more and more fragile if we do not act on those threats. An over-reliance on our political allies for monitoring and protection leaves us vulnerable to being politically pressured into scenarios that legitimately threaten our neutrality. We need to take corrective actions in terms of our own defence capabilities. Our Defence Forces have nowhere near the levels of personnel they need, with fewer than 7,500 members at present. That shortfall is not surprising when we look at the pay and conditions on offer. For instance, cadets get €503 per week for their first year, compared with starting pay of €550 per week for recruits, who move to €814 after six months. Cadets earn 47% less than their enlisted counterparts in their first year. It is no wonder we have struggled with recruitment for so long. As my colleague Deputy Smith said in the Dáil a couple of weeks ago, it may be financially illogical to become a cadet in view of the long-term impact on pension entitlements. In addition, the supplementary pension scheme issue, which is a problem across our uniformed services, is playing into our difficulties with recruitment and retention. These issues need be addressed. Our investment in building up our defence capabilities should be focused first and foremost on our people. The failure to get on top of our low level of Defence Forces membership is having knock-on effects elsewhere. There is a recommended acceleration programme of naval vessel replacement, for example, to ensure a balanced fleet of nine modern ships by the early 2030s. However, the problem in the Naval Service is not that there are no vessels; it is that we have no one to staff them. Throwing money at more vessels will not work. The investment must be in our people. We in the Labour Party have always maintained that Ireland is a militarily neutral country, and proudly so, but we are not politically neutral. We cannot compromise on our values. We cannot be politically neutral in the face of Israel's genocide in Gaza or Russia's imperialist invasion of Ukraine. Ireland's political voice should continue to be one that speaks for peace, diplomacy and multilateralism. The reason we can do that, and do it sincerely, is our military neutrality. I commend Deputy Stanley on his motion. Neutrality is the only path forward and any attempt by the Government to undermine it will be met with the utmost opposition by the Labour Party and by all of us across the left.

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