Last night there was a private discussion at the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party-----

Really.

The Deputy was a member one time.

-----and the work of the Defence Forces Chief of Staff was brought into disrepute. The matter was reported in the newspapers. It is absolutely outrageous that there would be any comment on the Chief of Staff, who is not in a position to respond.

Hear, hear.

He is a servant of this State. The Minister must go further than he did in the Dáil this morning in making an apology to the Chief of Staff. I am not for a moment justifying anything the Chief of Staff did. The meeting with the Russians was scheduled and the photograph on Twitter was a mistake.

The issue of the Russian fleet being off the south-west coast of this country in the coming weeks carrying out an exercise is something we must monitor. My colleague, Senator McDowell, spoke about the depletion of the Defence Forces over a long time in this country. We must send a Naval Service vessel to the south west with members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence observing what is going on there. Not only that, but they must be there to provide search and rescue for those on the trawlers who are taking their lives into their hands by sailing into a live firing exercise area. I have been involved in live firing events myself down through my career and I can tell the House that when one starts to fire live ammunition, there is no guarantee that there will not be an accident. The Naval Service must go there and I ask the Leader to bring that request to the Minister for Defence and to tell this House next week that it will do that.

I ask the Cathaoirleach to indulge me for a moment as I have to address the issue of Shannon and of aircraft flying in and out.

The Senator has five seconds.

No aircraft flies into Shannon with troops on board on a mission that has not been authorised under one of the chapters of the United Nations. This needs to stop. If we do not want these aircraft flying in and out of Shannon then we need to address this at UN headquarters and not in this House as it is not the place for it. We are a member of the United Nations and sometimes we have to be involved in the things we do not like, which is the truth of it.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. I echo the calls of Senators Chambers, McDowell and others for the debate on our Defence Forces. What is happening at the moment exposes the fact that Ireland on its own cannot deal with this. I agree with comments made by Senator Craughwell and others that this is not a neutral country. We are a non-aligned country and I am very proud that we have a non-aligned foreign policy. We have to be very clear, however, because on issues such as human rights abuses and attacks on the sovereignty of other countries, we cannot be neutral. We have to provide support for them. Human rights, incidentally, apply just as much within the European Union as they do on a wider basis, and we should be speaking out about them. Our foreign policy can never be neutral and we should not be afraid to speak out.

I also support the remarks of my colleague, Senator Cassells, about a properly funded public sector media.

I also want to raise the point about the economic battle at the moment, where Ireland’s model traditionally used to be one of tax and talent. The tax thing is somewhat to one side now, so it is about a global battle for talent at this point in time. We are seeing the workplace changing more quickly to the point that in the next decade, 65% of current jobs are likely to be either redundant or significantly changed. We have talked before about all of the jobs that are in demand around data scientists, looking at artificial intelligence, AI, cybersecurity and so on. We need to look at having a debate in the context of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and its long-term strategy on how it is going to reskill and upskill all our citizens to be able to cater for that. Retail banking as we know it, for instance, is dead but we have very skilled workers in the banking sector and we need to upskill and reskill them to be able to take advantage of the new opportunities. We need a big debate around the future of work and what we, as a State, are doing to upskill and reskill our citizens to avail of it.