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?

The ESRI was very clear that the two lowest deciles in income terms benefited most from the recent budget. In terms of the supports for children and those with disabilities, embedded policies and allocations in the social protection budget and investment in disability services, education and health were all designed for the long term to support those with disabilities.

The idea that there is no money, as the Deputy said, is a complete untruth. Some €13 billion has been invested in education alone this year. This idea that there is no money for children and people with disabilities and that we are now going into full-scale funding for the arms industry is hyperbole and exaggeration beyond belief. The Deputy needs to cop on with this kind of nonsense and propagandising on what are very basic necessities for an island nation-----

It is all in the national maritime security strategy.

-----to protect itself and to protect vital economic infrastructure. I do not know what the Deputy has against big tech in terms of its employment content. He seems to hate companies that employ thousands of people in this country. He seems to have an agenda against major companies that employ thousands of people. I do not agree with him. Last week, I was at Apple in Cork. It employs 6,000 people. I was a student in Cork in the 1980s when there was 17% unemployment. I witnessed all the companies-----

Fianna Fáil was in power.

-----like Ford and Dunlop closing, the Verolme dockyard closing and the Sunbeam-Wolsey plant closing. Thousands of jobs were lost. It was a very difficult decade. I have never lost the memory of what it was like in the city of Cork and many cities across the country. Part of the renovation and rejuvenation of this country - even if the Deputy might not like it - was the fact the likes of Microsoft came to this country in 1985. It has been here more than 40 years. Apple came in 1980 and it has grown. It is workers who have benefited. Ordinary people, who have career opportunities, have benefited from that. We can be critical, and we have to stand back and analyse the agendas, etc., but these are the basic facts for the ordinary people that the Deputy is supposed to represent.

When we say that we want to protect critical undersea infrastructure, if anything happened to cables or the gas connectors with Britain, we would not have an economy in ten days, in terms of the gas interconnection.

Is the Deputy saying we should not co-operate with Britain to protect the gas interconnectors with the United Kingdom and we should just ignore it? Is he saying we should ignore all of our European partners in protecting critical undersea infrastructure such as subsea cables and the interconnector with France, which will be completed in the next year or two and will guarantee energy security for our people?

I thank the Taoiseach. Deputy Murphy to respond.

What planet is the Deputy on that he would deny the ordinary people of this country-----

Thank you, Taoiseach. Time is up.

-----jobs, energy security and an opportunity to have economic participation?