Over the weekend, President Higgins rang the alarm bells about the dangerous drift in Ireland's foreign policy away from neutrality and raised concerns about the composition of the Government's consultative forum. The President has to be somewhat constrained and diplomatic in what he says.

However, what he said echoes what we have been trying to say for the past number of months, namely, that the Government has seized on the tragic, brutal, unjustifiable war of Putin in Ukraine to try to move Ireland away from neutrality and towards greater involvement with the project of EU militarisation and NATO. This consultative forum is part of that campaign by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and, tragically, the Green Party to soften up public opinion against neutrality and towards closer alignment with EU militarisation and NATO.

We held our breath a little, despite our scepticism about what the forum would look like, but then we saw the list of moderators and speakers for the forum that will take place in what is supposed to be a balanced discussion. It is dripping and packed to the rafters with NATO employees, people who have worked with NATO, people associated with the military-industrial complex, generals, brigadiers, lieutenant commanders of the military, and academics who have published records - these are not personal points - of being pro-NATO, pro-EU militarisation and pro-NATO, US, UK and western foreign policy agendas. In contrast, there is one speaker who has a record of pro-neutrality, anti-war activism. For example, there are three speakers for the module on Ireland's engagement with NATO. One of them is the director of security policy for NATO, one is a member of our military personnel who has been seconded to NATO, and the third is an academic who has a published record of arguing in favour of EU militarisation and closer alignment of Ireland to NATO. That is typical of what this forum is about.

Will the Taoiseach acknowledge that this forum is stacked with pro-NATO, pro-militarisation and anti-neutrality propaganda, and that what we actually need is a balanced debate and a referendum on Ireland's neutrality, in respect of which there has been five Bills in this House over recent years, every one of which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voted against?

I confirm once again that Ireland will remain militarily neutral. We are not going to apply for NATO membership, or membership of any military alliance, nor will we sign up to any mutual defence pact or clause. The Tánaiste has made that very clear on a number of occasions, as have I.

However, the security threats facing our country have changed. There are cybersecurity threats, threats related to international terrorism and espionage, and hybrid threats. We have to think about that as a country. The Tánaiste has established this forum to do exactly that. The kind of things we will do, which we have been doing for some time now, include increasing our budget for defence, co-operating with our EU allies through permanent structured co-operation, PESCO, of which we are a founder and now full member, and co-operating with allies, such as the US, UK and Canada, through the NATO Partnership for Peace process, which we have been a member of for more than 20 years.

The forum will begin this week, on 22 June, in University College Cork, UCC. There will be another meeting on 23 June in University of Galway and on 26 and 27 June in Dublin Castle. The forum is not a binary discussion on neutrality and was never intended to be. As I said, there is no intention to change our policy of military neutrality. It is, however, the fundamental duty of the Government to rise to the challenging global situation we face today. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, which blatantly violated the UN Charter, every country in Europe has examined and re-examined its foreign and security policy and defence policies. It is very positive to see that more than 900 people have already registered to take part over the four days. We have already received 300 written submissions. Eighty people are moderating or speaking on panels over the four days.

They are people with expertise in this area, people who have been involved in peacekeeping, peacebuilding and conflict resolution internationally. Moderators and panellists include many Irish people with on-the-ground experience of UN and EU operations in places like Chad, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Georgia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Lebanon. It includes academics from Ireland, as well as Sweden, Finland, Norway, which is a neutral country, Poland, Denmark and the UK. There are senior Irish officials, as well as people from NGOs such as Oxfam and Concern. Of the 18 panel discussions over the four days, only one is about NATO and only two about neutrality.

Any fair-minded person who looks at this will see it is dripping and stacked to the rafters with pro-NATO people and people associated with the military-industrial complex. For example, there is not a single speaker from the Non-Aligned Movement. For people's information, that is the biggest movement of states in the world that do not associate or identify with the big military powers, whether Russia, NATO or China. It has 120 members but not a single representative on the forum. NATO has 33 members and the forum is packed with representatives of NATO, people who work with NATO and NATO members. It is stacked in a way designed to condition opinion in a particular direction.

We have had NATO military commanders in Cork assessing our troops. We have signed up to PESCO, which is all about interoperability with NATO. Yet the Taoiseach is seriously suggesting the Government is not by stealth trying to drag us into NATO. He mentioned breaches of the UN Charter which Russia has clearly committed, but says nothing about breaches or violations of human rights by states supported by the US and UK, whether Israel, Saudi Arabia or God knows who else. It is all biased because the Taoiseach is trying to move us away from neutrality. Why will he not support a referendum on the issue of neutrality and a real balanced debate?

There is no hidden agenda here. I have told the Deputy exactly what we intend to do. We intend to increase and improve our Defence Forces and defence capability. We are founder members of PESCO, which is European foreign and security structured co-operation. For more than 20 years, we have been part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace. Interoperability is there to protect our troops and make sure they are safe and can act effectively in peacekeeping missions, being able to use the same equipment and to engage in joint operations with countries such as Poland and Estonia, which we do in Lebanon. There are no secrets here. We are very clear about our policy. We will not be joining NATO or any other military alliance; we will be investing in our Defence Forces. We are founder members of structured co-operation at a European level in security and defence and for more than 20 years we have been a NATO partner for peace.