The imperialist aggression of Russia in Ukraine is clear to see and must be absolutely condemned. It involves the killing of tens of thousands of Ukrainians, the destruction of infrastructure, the kidnapping of children, the commission of war crimes and the imperialist arrogance of the Russian empire - Putin's empire - in believing it should control spheres of influence around Russia. There is a long history of Russia being the prison house of nations, as it was called in the days of the tsars, subjugating those in its sphere of influence. That is mirrored by Trump's recently declared national security strategy, under which he also asserted the right of the United States to control the entire American continent, Greenland and so on. We have had a long history of the United States's military interventions in what it considers its sphere of influence. We need to condemn absolutely Putin's imperialism and all forms of imperialism, including Trump's imperialist arrogance and aggression and his assertion that he has a right to a sphere of influence. None of these imperial or military powers have a right to spheres of influence or to subjugate the right to self-determination of their neighbouring countries, and we need to stand against it. Therefore, while we absolutely want to support the Ukrainian people's right to self-determination, their attempts to reconstruct their country and giving refuge to people fleeing this horrific war, the question is where does this loan fit into all this and the attempt to bring peace and genuine self-determination and stand up to these imperial powers. It is clear the EU's motivation has absolutely zero to do with asserting the right to self-determination of anyone. It has no ethics, no principles whatsoever. How do we know that? It is because the EU continues to give favoured trade status to Israel, while it commits, and has committed for the past two years, a genocide. The EU is not motivated by any concern for self-determination, human rights or anything because if it were, it would be consistent; it would oppose a genocide and it does not. Leading EU states continue to arm the genocide being committed. That is Germany most notably, but also other EU states and other people are promoting the escalation of the military conflict with Russia. In that context, we have to be clear about what is Europe's motivation. It is to militarise Europe, to exploit the tragedy of the Ukrainian people in order to militarise Europe and ratchet up military expenditure. The Irish Government wants to be part of that. That is why it joined the Ukraine contact group, why it goes to NATO meetings and why it is trying to ratchet up military expenditure and undermine our neutrality. It is not possible to separate these things. It is important to say that all that military expenditure does nothing to prevent the horrors we have seen. NATO's combined military expenditure is €1.5 trillion. Russia's is €150 billion. In other words, NATO spends ten times more than Russia on arms. Did it prevent the tragedy and terrible events in Ukraine? Not at all. Furthermore, Trump is now insisting that we more than double that expenditure in Europe - more than double it. He says we have to go from 2% of GDP expenditure on arms and military to 5%. That is incredible. That is money that should be going to housing, health, education and the humanitarian reconstruction of Ukraine. Instead, it will go to weapons, the arms manufacturers who want to profit from this horror and sell weapons to Israel to kill Palestinians. You can add to that the various hypocrisies, such as Western Sahara, which I mentioned earlier, and the funding of other dictatorial regimes and the selling of weapons to them. The Government and the European Union cannot be trusted with this money. They cannot be trusted not to continue to ratchet up military competition, to escalate or not to be, to some degree, concerned with their own spheres of influence. Certainly, that is true of Germany and other states which want to maintain their spheres of influence. Sinn Féin is correct to propose the amendment to insist that this money not be used in any way to escalate a military conflict or to undermine our neutrality. The Government cannot be trusted and the EU certainly cannot be trusted in that area. They have no credentials when it comes to consistency in asserting human rights or even self-determination. It is ironic when they talk about this. What did the Minister say? She said, "the inherent right of the Ukrainian people to self defence and self determination". Absolutely. Do the Palestinians have any less of a right to armed self-defence against an illegal occupier? Legally, absolutely not. They absolutely have the right to armed self-defence. We know when the Palestinians try to assert that right they are condemned as terrorists, but it is different with Ukraine. Why is it different? Because it is strategically in the self-interest of Europe. It is nothing to do with principles or international law; it is purely to do with strategic self-interest. In other words, it is guilty of the same kind of imperialist arrogance and self-serving logic that Putin and Trump are guilty of. We should not be underwriting loans for the escalation of military conflict, which has been a disaster. It has not helped the Ukrainian people. What we need is for Ireland to be a voice for peace against war, militarism and empire across the world, to show and demand consistency when it comes to opposing militarism, war and imperialism around the world, from whomever it emanates, whether that is Putin, Trump, China or imperial powers within the European Union.

Sentiment score: -0.16