I thank Deputy Stanley for bringing forward this important motion on protecting our neutrality. As the Deputy's motion alludes to, the origin of Irish neutrality lies with Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of Ireland’s greatest revolutionaries. He developed the concept of Irish neutrality in 1790 in the context of a debate in the Irish Parliament about whether Ireland should, essentially, back Britain. It was obliged to back Britain in an impending war with Spain. Wolfe Tone argued that it was, essentially, a betrayal of our struggle for autonomy and against empire to be in any way a staging ground for empires in wars. That is where neutrality came from. That radical, anti-imperialist notion of neutrality was then taken forward by James Connolly, Pádraig Pearse and Constance Markievicz when they set up the Irish Neutrality League in 1914 when the First World War broke out. That was another war between empires in which people tried to argue that Ireland was obliged to support the British empire in an inter-imperialist slaughter that claimed the lives of 14 million people. Tens of thousands of working-class Irish people, who were economically conscripted, were slaughtered in that war. This proud, anti-imperialist tradition is integrally tied up with who we are as a country in opposing empires. Do I trust the Irish Government with our neutrality? No, because it has already shredded it in doing exactly what Connolly, Markievicz, Pearse and Wolfe Tone did not want us to do, namely, become a staging ground for empires engaged in wars, most notably Shannon Airport. Millions of US troops transited through Shannon Airport while they prosecuted a criminal war in Iraq that claimed the lives of 1 million people. That was a war for oil, led by the US and the UK, that destabilised the whole Middle East. There would be no Al-Qaeda or half of these other groups were it not for that disastrous, criminal war based on lies about weapons of mass destruction. We allowed millions of US troops to go through Shannon Airport because the Irish Government and the political establishment wanted to align themselves with the American empire. That same American empire today, led by Donald Trump, is telling Europe that it must spend more on weapons. Donald Trump is goading. Should we listen to his goading that Europe has to militarise, play its part in NATO and spend more on weapons rather than health, housing and education? I say "No". Defending our neutrality means not listening to his goading or involving ourselves in a project of militarisation in Europe, which is alarmingly reminiscent of the build-up to previous world wars, with geopolitical jockeying and a militarisation of big powers across the globe as they try to carve out spheres of influence. We should not be involved in that. The triple lock is precisely about ensuring that we do not get involved in wars where empires are clashing and that we do not take sides with empires. We oppose empire. Do I trust our Government when we look at current events? I want to speak up for the 14 Irish people upholding our tradition of neutrality on the Global Sumud Flotilla who have been kidnapped by Israel in international waters. Europe does nothing about this rogue state that is guilty of genocide, apartheid and flouting every bit of international law. It is now kidnapping Irish people and imprisoning them because they are trying to uphold international law. What does the Irish Government do with the Israeli state that is doing all of this? We have increased our trade with it. We approved €20 million in licences to export dual-use goods to the Israeli military that is carrying out genocide and kidnapping Irish citizens. I, therefore, do not trust the Government. The agenda is to get involved in a European militarisation project and align Ireland with the western empire that arms Israel and is up to its teeth in warmongering. After the disasters of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we should not trust the Government. We should hold onto the triple lock and retain that tradition of neutrality that goes back to our revolutionary, anti-imperialist roots.

Sentiment score: -0.21