Sometimes when I am in this Chamber, with its busts and statues of the 1916 leaders all around, I find what I listen to from the Government astonishing. I think of the famous banner that stated, "We serve neither King nor Kaiser, but Ireland". That is a really proud declaration and it is burned into the hearts of the Irish people because they were colonised for long enough and fought empire for long enough. It is a proud stand that we have taken for all of these years, and it has given us real credibility to engage on the international stage in peacekeeping, the defence of human rights and the resolution of conflicts. That has been our proud position for so many years. It is cherished by the Irish people. I find the Government's current position disgusting when I think that, at the first ask, the Irish people rejected the Nice and Lisbon treaty propositions. The propositions were put back to the Irish people with clear, solemn promises around our neutrality and the triple lock. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael made those promises to the Irish people and now they want to break them. This will not stand. If the Government believes it is right in removing the triple lock, it has to be put to the Irish people. It has to be put to them because they were given promises when they voted for the Nice and Lisbon treaties at the second ask.

Sentiment score: 0.27