As the Taoiseach knows, Ireland will take over the EU Presidency for six months as of tomorrow and the Taoiseach will host a launch event in Dublin Castle to commence the six months of the Irish EU Presidency. I will be joining a demonstration outside Dublin Castle with anti-war and peace groups, pro-neutrality groups and Palestine solidarity groups, because they and I are concerned that, rather than using the position of the EU Presidency to defend our tradition of neutrality and reflect the views of the majority of Irish people, who want to protect that tradition of neutrality, the Government will cave in to the agenda of Ursula von der Leyen and the European Union to ramp up in an enormous way the militarisation of Europe and the arms industry in Europe, and that it will do this at a time when the European Union is deeply complicit in the horrific genocide Israel is committing against the Palestinian people.

The background to that is a policy document of the EU titled, tellingly, ReArm Europe Plan, which was published in the middle of last year - ReArm Europe. I am sure the Taoiseach is familiar with it, and if he were not that, would be a serious abdication of his responsibilities. It is a document which proposes to dramatically increase arms expenditure in Europe - about double it - from approximately €400 billion per year to €800 billion per year. This is money that could be spent on addressing the cost-of-living crisis, the housing crisis, health and education, but Europe is proposing to double arms expenditure. This is at the same time that Europe is exporting about €800 billion worth of arms and military components to Israel while it commits a genocide against the Palestinian people. My fear is that the Government will use this as a propaganda jamboree to justify what we know it has committed to, which is getting rid of the Irish triple lock, removing obstacles to the deployment of Irish troops where there is no UN mandate, while Europe is pushing for greater militarisation-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----greater spending on weapons and arming a genocide in Gaza.

The Taoiseach to respond.

Will the Government stand up for neutrality?

The Taoiseach will respond.

Will it oppose the EU militarisation agenda and complicity with genocide or will it cave in to that agenda?

Ireland will assume the Presidency of the European Union. The three fundamental pillars of our Presidency will be competitiveness, values and security.

On competitiveness, we are looking for a capital markets union. We will try to advance that agenda to enable Irish small- and medium-sized companies to get access to a far greater degree of venture capital in Europe. We hope we can establish - Commissioner Michael McGrath is pursuing this - the 28th regime or European Inc., which would basically mean that SMEs would be established on a pan-European basis from day one. We want to deepen the Single Market because Irish workers and people have benefited from it. We also want to simplify regulation to enable economic growth across the European Union.

The European Union has been transformative for Ireland since we voted to join in 1972 and joined in 1973. It has been a transformative experience economically for Ireland and, among most populations across Europe, Ireland has enjoyed probably the highest pro-European Union sentiment on a consistent basis over the years.

Many on the left have opposed the European Union and every treaty to do with it. That is their right and entitlement, but Europe is a far broader story than the one the Deputy painted.

Fundamentally, we will be endeavouring to see if we can help the agenda of making Europe more competitive on the industrial front and technology front to create jobs for people and to protect the jobs Irish people already have. Many of our companies export to the European market. We export a lot of food to the European market. We export a lot of medical devices to the European market. We export a lot of pharmaceuticals to the European market. They are real jobs. Real Irish people depend on those jobs and depend on that market. The Deputy ignores all that and he has consistently ignored it in the context of the European agenda.

Let us come to what he claims is rearming and militarisation. What is happening? What happened in the past five years? Can the Deputy recall? Ukraine was invaded, violently, by Russia and without any provocation. It was a total violation of the UN Charter. What has that created across the eastern flank? How does the Deputy think Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Estonia feel? They do not have the geographic isolation we have here; we are far removed. They have a far greater existential fear of Russia than the Deputy or I have, even though we should be concerned in terms of technology and cybersecurity as well as subsea cable and gas connector sabotage.

Hear, hear.

The world has become much more complex but the Deputy ignores that all the time. There are parts of Europe that feel under existential threat. They do not believe the US will be there for them-----

Thank you, Taoiseach.

-----when the time comes and therefore they are-----

Thank you. Deputy Boyd Barrett to respond.

-----enhancing their military expenditure and defence expenditure. It is because of what happened in terms of Russia's behaviour.

I spent much of last night conversing with a young man from Ukraine who fled here because he did not want to be conscripted into the disastrous Ukrainian-Russian war and is fearful he is going to be sent back there because Zelenskyy is asking that people of his age now be sent back to fight on a front line where tens of thousands are being slaughtered. That disastrous war was, of course, started by Putin but young men like him do not want to fight in it.

The Taoiseach did not refer to the document I mentioned. It states "The moment has come for Europe to re-arm. ... [we need] a massive increase in European defence spending ..." That is what is being urged by Ursula von der Leyen and the EU at the moment, namely, to double arms expenditure from about €400 billion to €800 billion at the same time as Europe is exporting about €800 billion in arms to Israel to commit genocide. We are a neutral country. That is about opposing militarism, war and so on. Is the Taoiseach going to speak up against that? Is he going-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----to oppose the militarisation agenda-----

The Taoiseach to respond.

-----oppose the shameful complicity with the genocide-----

Thank you, Deputy. The Taoiseach to respond.

-----and do an about-turn on the question of the triple lock-----

The Taoiseach to respond now.

-----which is about dismantling our neutrality?

Taoiseach, please.

First of all, we will uphold Irish military neutrality. There is no issue with Irish military neutrality. There has been no attempt to undermine Irish military neutrality by Europe or by anybody else, for that matter, and the Deputy should stop scaremongering in respect of it. We are not joining NATO anytime soon. We are not militarily aligned and we have no intention of joining any military group or bloc. That is Irish military neutrality.

That is all it is.

Sorry?

No.

That is all it is for you. As long as we are not in NATO we are neutral.

I am sorry but you do not get to define it.

And you do not get to interrupt.

You do not get to define it. If you had your way you would not have an army at all. You said that to me one day here during question time when I asked you straight out if you believed we should have a military at all.

I did not. Check the record.

A bit of respect, please.

Okay. I am glad you maybe accept we might need some sort of military or defence capability. In any event, there is not unanimity across Europe - there is disagreement on Palestine - but Europe remains the biggest donor to Palestine globally. It is the biggest donor to Palestinians in terms of-----

Thank you, Taoiseach.

-----supporting Palestinians across the board from the PA to the ordinary Palestinians in terms of the vital essential services they require.