This Saturday, disabled people and the Affordable Ireland campaign will be on the streets demanding an emergency payment after the Government took over €1,400 from them in the last budget. So far, the Government has refused to concede. There is no money for disabled people. There was no money for SNAs until people power forced the Government back. There is no money for electricity credits. What is there money for? There is money to develop an Irish arms industry and to give to the French arms industry. The French media is reporting that we will spend €1 billion of public money on armoured vehicles, tanks and a Howitzer. The Thales Group, which supplied weapons to Israel for the slaughter of Palestinians, will be the main recipient. It is part and parcel of an agenda of militarisation and dismantling neutrality. If we look at the maritime security strategy launched this morning, it is a shameful abandonment of any independent foreign policy. Instead, it commits us to deep military co-operation with the old colonial powers of Britain and France, advocating further integration with NATO and using huge amounts of public money to defend the infrastructure of big tech companies. The strategy refers to "our responsibility and commitment to support the security and defence of Europe". When did we sign up for that? That sounds awfully like a mutual defence pact, when the protocol associated with the Lisbon treaty explicitly stated that there would be no common defence agreement involved. Again and again, the document refers positively to NATO. It says, "Ireland can play a positive role in supporting greater EU-NATO co-operation". Action 4.6 states that Ireland should "foster relations with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, in the maritime security space". Action 4.8 states that Ireland should "pursue opportunity to participate in Joint Expeditionary Force+, JEF+, activities." The Joint Expeditionary Force, JEF, is ten NATO countries led by Britain. Is that one of the reasons the Taoiseach wants to abolish the triple lock? As a neutral country, why should we support greater co-operation between the EU and NATO? NATO is made up of states that overwhelmingly supported, armed and financed Israel's genocide in Gaza. It is led by Donald Trump, who just in the past two months kidnapped the president of a sovereign country and threatened to invade Greenland and is trying to dismantle the UN and replace it with a so-called Board of Peace, with himself as the chairman for life. This is a strategy written for the big tech companies that want us to pay to protect their cables, by the arms lobbyists who want our money for their weapons and by Britain and France. Action 2.1 refers to developing "a trusted network of critical underwater infrastructure stakeholders", which is to include industry. Who is the Taoiseach talking about? Is he talking about big tech companies or arms companies? This State was born out of a struggle against British imperialism. It is why people have a deep connection to an independent foreign policy, a consistent opposition to all imperialism and support for neutrality. Why is the Taoiseach throwing all of this away?
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The planet I am on is a planet where the Taoiseach introduced a budget that cut income for disabled people by €1,400. Absolutely shameful. The planet I am on is where he introduced a budget that, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, significantly increases the rates of child poverty and poverty among older people, and decreases the income of the poorest people in this country by 4.4%. That is the planet I am on. They are all facts from the Parliamentary Budget Office. This is the same planet where the Taoiseach is scaremongering to justify giving €1 billion to the French arms industry, the same people who have facilitated, enabled and created the weapons for the genocide. Yes, we think the Government should not have military co-operation with big, Western imperialist powers. We should not have military co-operation with NATO, Britain or France. Of course not. We should be neutral. The best defence we have is a consistent position of neutrality whereby we call out imperialism and attacks on human rights no matter where they take place. We have the position that Connolly put forward, "neither king nor Kaiser", which today means neither Washington nor Moscow-----
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-----neither Brussels nor Beijing but instead, stand up for ordinary people in this country.
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It is a battlegroup.
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I did not say that.
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Is the Taoiseach calling for EU and NATO battlegroups-----
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It is in the document. Deal with it.
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You cannot describe my views. I will describe my own views.
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