Tá meas mór ag muintir na hÉireann ar ár neodracht. Ní féidir le Fianna Fáil nó Fine Gael fáil réidh leis an nglas triarach gan cead na ndaoine. Caithfear an cheist seo a chur faoi bhráid an phobail i reifreann. Today marks a very significant day for Ireland and our future. Today, the Government is bringing forward legislation to dismantle the triple lock. The consequences of the legislation, if passed, cannot be underestimated. The Government is tearing away current vital safeguards on the deployment of Irish troops overseas. It is clearing the way for this Government and future governments to send Irish troops into military operations without a UN mandate. Scrapping the triple lock opens the door to Ireland being dragged into EU military structures, dangerous alliances and further alignment with NATO. None of this is supported by the Irish people.

Hear, hear.

Yesterday, I put it to the Taoiseach that the Government’s plan to abolish the triple lock and dismantle neutrality piece by piece flies in the face of our country’s values of peace and peacekeeping, diplomacy, respect for international law and, crucially, independent Irish foreign policy, all of the things that allow Ireland to speak powerfully against war and for justice and human rights. The Taoiseach’s response was to reach for theatrics and nonsense. It was a churlish response beneath the gravity and seriousness of this issue.

The Taoiseach has no mandate from the Irish people to dismantle our neutrality. He does not have the political or moral authority to overturn assurances previously given to the Irish people, and nor do his colleagues in Fine Gael or in Michael Lowry's group for that matter. He cannot simply airbrush commitments made by Fianna Fáil Governments to the Irish people on neutrality. Remember that the Irish people only passed the Nice and Lisbon treaties on the back of explicit guarantees that Irish neutrality would be protected. The triple lock was at the heart of that or, as the Taoiseach once put it, "at the core of our neutrality". I clearly remember Fianna Fáil Ministers and, indeed, a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach giving those commitments to the public, but now a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach and a Fianna Fáil-led Government seek to walk away from those commitments. The Taoiseach’s approach is to downplay, dismiss and trivialise his shameful manoeuvring. The dishonesty is staggering.

This is not a technical issue. It is not a minor matter. We are talking about an enormous shift in foreign policy, one with far-reaching consequences for generations to come, yet debate is shut down, speaking time is guillotined and scrutiny is avoided. Above all else, the Government wants to rob the Irish people of their rightful place as custodians of our neutrality. How disgraceful. It is not for the Taoiseach, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael or the Government to decide the future of Irish neutrality. That is for the people to decide. They have a democratic duty to seek the people’s permission. I put it to the Taoiseach again: ask this question in a referendum. Let the people of Ireland call this. Let the people vote on this because anything else is a profound betrayal by the Government.

Hear, hear.

Well said.

Aontaím leis an Teachta go bhfuil meas mór ag muintir na hÉireann ar ár bpolasaí a bhaineann le neodracht na tíre. Tá an Rialtas taobh thiar den pholasaí sin. Níl sé ar intinn ag an Rialtas in aon chor athrú a dhéanamh ar neodracht na tíre. The Deputy’s presentation of this issue is completely disingenuous and dishonest. Our reform of the triple lock is fundamentally about keeping alive the Irish tradition of peacekeeping and, indeed, keeping alive our capacity to have an independent foreign policy. In no way does it undermine Irish military neutrality. The Deputy, on the other hand, is essentially willing to abandon our proud tradition of peacekeeping. We are not. The only motivation here is to retain the capacity to participate in peacekeeping. The Deputy wants Russia, the United States and China to have the power of veto over whether Ireland ever again in the future participates in a peacekeeping mission. That is the essential difference. She has created false narrative after false narrative but the essential difference here is how we develop a capacity. We need to be honest with our military about this as well, including with soldiers and their families.

Yes.

We do.

Let us not pretend that everything will be rosy in the garden if we just do not go through with reform of our legislation. It will not be. We know that because the ending of the UNIFIL mission is happening at the insistence of the United States to take away the Security Council's support for the work that Irish peacekeepers, and many other peacekeepers working with us, have been doing for many years in Lebanon, endeavouring to keep the peace there. I find it extraordinary, given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Remember that Russia is on the Security Council. We have a member of the Security Council wilfully violating the UN Charter, committing terrible war crimes and bombing civilians and it is the Deputy’s proposition that that country should have a veto on whether Irish peacekeepers enter into a peacekeeping mission. That is the stark choice facing us. That is what the Deputy is saying-----

Be honest.

-----that Russia will have the veto and our foreign policy-----

Please be honest with us.

-----will be dependent on Russia’s say-so at the UN Security Council. The UN Security Council is no longer functioning. It is paralysed. The world is much more polarised by the hegemonic powers, by the US, Russia and China. We should retain-----

The Taoiseach is giving up on the UN.

No, I am not, but I am realistic about-----

Without interruption, please.

-----the United Nations and the Security Council. What we are simply saying is that we need to reform that-----

Ask the people.

-----if our military is to have any prospect of engagement in peacekeeping and assisting Irish citizens. We need to reform our legislation to make sure that, where our citizens are in crisis situations around the world, we can get more than 12 troops out to assist them.

We must also remember our role in Liberia and Chad. What was that role? That role was ensuring humanitarian aid to huge populations. We played a very noble role and Irish troops led that particular mission on behalf of many others. All we want to do is maintain peacekeeping. We are not joining NATO. We have no plans to join NATO. We have made that very clear. We are not part of any military alliance. Within the Constitution, there is a prohibition on mutual defence. This is a new concept that we must now have a referendum on an issue that does not involve any amendment, change, addition or deletion to the Irish Constitution. We have never had referendums bar those amending, deleting or adding to the Constitution.

I thank the Taoiseach. I call Deputy McDonald.

The Deputy seems to now be undermining-----

The allocated time is up, Taoiseach. I call Deputy McDonald.

-----the whole process of parliamentary democracy.

The triple lock has been described here in the Dáil, in this democratic place, by a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach as the ultimate, legally binding guarantee of Ireland’s sovereign military neutrality.

That is the fact of the matter. The necessity for a UN mandate is essential to ensure our compliance with international law and to ensure that our actions are absolutely consistent as a non-aligned, neutral State. Those are the facts of the matter. The Taoiseach reaches for Russia. He could reach for others because the Russians are not on their own in violating international law and dismissing the UN system. He reaches for the fact that we need UN reform, which I agree with, as a pretext and camouflage to ditch Irish neutrality. He is wrong to do that. That is a shameful position. Let me put it to the Taoiseach again - we can debate this here - that the core of the position is this-----

Thank you Deputy, your time is up.

The Irish people get to call Irish neutrality. The Taoiseach gave them assurances to get Lisbon and Nice passed.

The Taoiseach to respond.

He offered up the triple lock as the guarantee mechanism. Now he wants to take it away.

Respectfully, Deputy, your time is up. The Taoiseach to respond.

He cannot do that without asking the people's permission.

For over 60 years now, you-----

I am not 60.

-----as in the Sinn Féin Party, the left-----

I just want to put that on the record.

I am talking about the Sinn Féin Party, the left and the far left, which for over 60 years have said neutrality was dead. In 1972 when we had a referendum on entering the European Union-----

We said you were killing it.

Stop. Go back over the manifestos-----

That is very different.

They declared that neutrality is over. They declared that it was going to be over in 2003, 2008 and ever since.

Then we got the triple lock.

Neutrality was not dead.

We said the Government was killing it. That is very different.

Do not be so disrespectful.

Neutrality was not dead. They kept, decade after decade, trotting out this line about a military European Union complex, that we would be part of a European army and that our neutrality was dead in the water.

So we got the Seville declaration. That was great, was it not? The Government is tearing it up.

All of it has been proven to date to have been false assertions and false narratives and they are doing the same here. I did not just reach for Russia. I said earlier that the United States has essentially stopped the UNIFIL mission-----

What about Israel?

The time is up.

-----in Lebanon.

Israel.

I call Deputy Cian O'Callaghan.

The United States is on the Security Council. Israel is not.

I am aware of that.

Are you going to stand, Deputy O'Callaghan?

The United States is on it. Let us argue the facts.

I am arguing the facts.

Taoiseach, Deputy O'Callaghan is now on his feet.

The fundamental point is that they want to end peacekeeping but we want to keep it going.

Please, your time is up. I have called Deputy O'Callaghan.