Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Stanley as an rún seo a mholadh inniu. Neutrality has served this country well for generations. It keeps us focused on peace, diplomacy and humanitarian leadership, not on military alliances. Neutrality is not about standing aside. It about standing firmly for peace, international law and human rights. Our military neutrality gives Ireland credibility on the global stage as a voice for dialogue, conflict resolution and humanitarian action. With this in mind, we should be investing in peacebuilding, climate action and public services, not drifting towards the increase militarisation we are seeing in Europe and across the globe. Neutrality reflects the values of many Irish people: independence, solidarity and a commitment to peaceful international engagement. The Government has now proposed the removal of the triple lock authorisation for foreign military activities which has a direct implication on that core ideal of impartiality in military deployments. The Government's proposals risk changing the way that we, as a State, engage with peacekeeping efforts and it will erode our credibility as a neutral voice in conflict scenarios. Ireland has a positive and, in many ways, a unique voice in international peacekeeping efforts as a post-colonial nation within the EU and one that has avoided being tied to military blocs or to great-power politics. That unique perspective is one that is worth defending. We must also try to avoid any effort to elide the difference between peacekeeping and peace enforcement. Peacekeeping means the deployment of the minimal multilateral force necessary with the agreement of all sides to a dispute with a mandate to provide a security presence to protect civilian life, to prevent a conflict from escalating further and to create space to build the peace through humanitarian aid and peacebuilding programmes. Peace enforcement, on the other hand, is the deployment of a force without the specific consent of the parties to a conflict and which uses a coercive military force to impose a cessation in fighting between two or more parties. We should not allow Government proposals around neutrality to confuse these two types of intervention. Ireland's commitment to peacekeeping is in line with the values of the UN Charter and it gives us credibility on issues of peace. This does not mean being ignorant to the reality of the current geopolitical dynamic which has led to a paralysed UN Security Council. We must enunciate a visible alternative as a State. The solution is not to engage in partisan or ad hoc efforts to administer the UN framework as that way lies the Trump Administration's Board of Peace which is little more than an authoritarian vanity project. We should instead work with like-minded neutral states within the UN framework.

Sentiment score: 0.36