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Seanad
‹ Order of Business

PESCO debate and ministerial حضور

Summary

Senator Higgins sought an amendment to require the Taoiseach or relevant Ministers to attend a debate on PESCO, arguing the move had major implications for foreign affairs and disarmament.

I will propose an amendment to the Order of Business because I believe the Taoiseach needs to come to the House. We need to have the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, because this will have a fundamental impact on our foreign affairs policy and our record on disarmament. I recognise they may be at the Brexit negotiations, in which case we can look to the Minister of State with responsibility for defence. This is much bigger than a defence issue. It is a change in direction for Ireland. There is a difference between humanitarian rescue of migrants and engaging in the funding of countries that shoot at migrants. There is a difference between missions which are UN peacekeeping missions and missions that have some part of them sanctioned or agreed to by the UN and are bordering on NATO missions. The permanent structured co-operation on security and defence-----

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