The Government has proposed to scrap the triple lock. In 2013, when the Taoiseach was on this side of House, he said "triple lock ... is at the core of our neutrality". I agree with what he said then. As a member of the defence committee, we have looked at this very carefully, and I am fully convinced that what he said is true. He will try to justify the abandonment of the triple lock because we live in a changed world. He has said things like this, but neutrality was adopted during the Second World War.

The 1960 Defence (Amendment) Act set out clearly that the UN mandate is required for the deployment of a contingent of the Defence Forces overseas. That was in the middle of the Cold War and at a time of huge international conflict. The veto the UN Security Council can exercise is something that is raised. The Taoiseach will use this to try to justify the case for the abandonment of the triple lock. In 2013, he said the UN "is not working as it should but we must not abandon it as an essential part of the international system." I agree with that also.

From 2020 to 2024, the UN Security Council passed 264 out of 284 resolutions without a veto being exercised, and the Taoiseach will tell us Russia will veto a peacekeeping mission. Will he tell me which one it vetoed? I have been looking for it. Yes, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is wrong, but the United States and Israel are two countries that have consistently undermined and trampled over UN resolutions and UN decisions. I remind the Taoiseach of the weekend poll which again showed 71% of people in favour of maintaining neutrality. This comes on the back of a flood of right-wing propaganda in dozens of newspaper articles over the past 12 months calling for the scrapping of the triple lock and neutrality and the full participation of our Defence Forces in combat overseas.

Proceeding to scrap the triple lock and shredding not one but two national declarations that the Taoiseach's party drew up is likely to be unconstitutional and will probably be met with a court challenge. In the Nice Treaty, the Taoiseach's party put in that: "Ireland reiterates that the participation of contingents of the Irish Defence Forces in overseas operations, including those carried out under the European security and defence policy, requires (a) the authorisation of the ... [UN] Security Council or the General Assembly ... (b) the agreement of the ... Government and (c) the approval of Dáil Éireann". The very same words were used in the national declaration attached to the Lisbon Treaty. A solemn declaration was in the Nice Treaty to hold that. The Taoiseach and I know that the first two attempts to pass the Nice and Lisbon Treaties failed, and his party had to do that to get them through. That is fair enough, but is he now going to shred those two national declarations? Is he now going to repudiate the will of the Irish people and erode Irish neutrality?

Our military neutrality is defined as not being a member of a military alliance and we are not members of a military alliance.

We might as well be.

We do not intend to be. We are not a member of NATO, fundamentally. The triple lock relates to our participation in peacekeeping missions. We want to continue the tradition of Irish participation in peacekeeping missions. It has been a very noble one. It is probably one of the defining qualities of Irish foreign policy. People accept our bona fides in the international field, whether it is military peacekeeping or in civilian peace monitoring, contributions to conflict resolution and participation in multilateral fora from the United Nations, to the African Union and European Union, but the world has changed dramatically. I know the Deputy said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was wrong. I would respectfully say it was far more than wrong. It was appalling, horrific and is having horrific consequences.

If the Deputy stands back, why should Russia have a veto on whether Irish peacekeepers participate in a peacekeeping mission or not? When I say a veto, it is very clear that Russia, geopolitically over the last two decades in particular, does not want UN peacekeeping forces in a lot of parts of the world. If the Deputy takes Niger, Mali and all those areas in the Sahel, what has the Wagner Group been doing there for quite some time and Russia? They have been facilitating coup d'états, trying to exploit the natural resources of those countries in return for protecting the elites who perpetrated a coup d'état. Is that the country that should determine whether Ireland participates in a peacekeeping mission or not?

The US has decided that the UN should not support the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL. When I was out in UNIFIL before Christmas, a lot of members of our Army were asking straightforward questions as to where they get the experience in the future of peacekeeping and what the next theatre is for Irish troops to have experience in peacekeeping. Will the US determine that? Will China determine that? When we were on the Security Council, we wanted to connect climate security and make it a core principle. Russia vetoed it. We nearly got there, but Russia vetoed it.

In increasing times, we have been part of NATO peacekeeping missions. We have been part of European Union peacekeeping missions and we have been part of African Union-led peacekeeping missions. The key issue is the principle of peacekeeping. Why are we afraid in Dáil Éireann, with Seanad Éireann, to give ourselves the unrestricted authority to do that? We are the democratically elected people of this country. What is the problem? Do we not believe in parliamentary democracy? Parliamentary democracy is the cornerstone of one of the longest living democracies around the world, which happens to be Ireland. Maybe a bit more faith in ourselves and self-respect and self-esteem would go a long way to allay the propagandistic fears that have been articulated about this initiative.

I would remind the Taoiseach of two things. One is that I know the UN is not perfect and the veto may be exercised, but I also told him of the 264 resolutions that were passed in a four-year period without a veto being exercised by any of the five, including the US. None of what I am saying goes against strengthening our Defence Forces capacity and having a level of co-operation in terms of sharing information, etc., with other countries. That is not the argument I am making here. If national declarations are made - the Taoiseach's party in government solemnly made those national declarations regarding the triple lock and neutrality to the Irish people - is the Taoiseach going to tear them up? They are there in black and white on those pages. He knows why they were put there. It is a good thing they were put there. Now, what he is proposing to do is stand that on its head. I reminded him that neutrality was brought in by his party in times when the world was at peril, a lot worse than what it is now.

There are some people in the world who have gone mad; I agree with the Taoiseach on that. Netanyahu, Trump and Putin have gone crazy, but what we should not do is join military alliances and add to the madness that is going on. We have bona fides and some credibility to speak at international forums because we are neutral. We need to defend that neutrality.

It is because my party introduced the concept of neutrality during the Second World War that I have the self-confidence to deal with this and to be absolutely confident that this is not about ending military neutrality. I make that point more generally. We have evolved independent Irish foreign policy-----

You said the triple lock is the core of neutrality.

-----ever since in a manner that has been respected around the world. The UN Security Council is a post-war creation and is ridiculously outdated. Five members of the Security Council do not represent the world any more. Africa should be on the Security Council.

That is one-----

Latin America should be on the Security Council. It should be expanded and reformed, but we cannot get reform. We support reform of the UN Security Council. That is a problem in itself.

There is no sense of Ireland being a warmongering nation in any shape or form, nor do we have the capacity to be one. What we have capacity for is being professional peacekeepers, where we have made a significant contribution around the world. There has not been a peacekeeping mission sanctioned since 2014. The one in Lebanon is coming to an end at the behest of the Security Council. We are really restricting our capacity for peacekeeping by the composition and behaviour of the Security Council. That is a big issue which we cannot ignore.