Paul Murphy
Dublin South-West · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“The Minister of State assured us we are bound by international law but then went on to talk about the fact that he wants to deploy troops outside the framework of international law. That is why the Government is getting rid of the triple lock. All the triple lock does is ensure that we only can send troops in line with international law.”
“The case for MetroLink south west is extremely strong. There are 350,000 people living between the Luas red and green lines. That is who will be served by this.”
“Hopefully the junior Minister will be able to clarify. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, said earlier to Deputy Ó Laoghaire, "The people I speak to do not like the fact that Russia has essentially removed, or will remove in the coming months, all our peacekeeping troops from UNIFIL".”
“I, too, want to ask about the senior Minister. This came up at the Dáil reform committee last week. It is very peculiar that a senior Minister is here and has answered previous questions on the triple lock today and then – no offence meant - we have the junior Minister answering these questions, which precisely prevents the continuation o…”
“Its defence is that we should not worry because the Government is only going to send them as part of an international force. I do not think anyone here thinks the Government is going to invade a country all by itself.”
“It is there in black and white in the programme for Government and the Government needs to live up to its commitment to do a new, properly independent feasibility study. I appeal to the Minister of State to ask the Minister for Transport to meet with the metro south west group which has been doing such excellent campaigning on this issue.”
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“He thinks it is fine, and that we are going to run through this five or six times per year in our so-called strategic reserve that is going to displace even other gas as the dirtiest fossil fuel.”
“He knows that of course it is going to be US fracked gas. What else is it going to be? Incredibly, by not answering the question the Minister is telling me he has not conducted any studies in this regard. The Howarth paper was a key factor in the Biden Administration's decision to bring in a moratorium on new US LNG export facilities in January 2024. That was reversed by Trump, who is a climate denier. In changing the policy here to allow US fracked gas imports, the Government is aligning itself with Trump and climate denial. The Minister needs to deal with the reality of the science of what the impact of fracked gas is. This is the dirtiest fossil fuel possible and the Minister has not commissioned any research or any evidence to suggest that is not the case.”
“I have a fixation on climate change, and if the Minister's point is that I have a fixation on fossil fuels, yes, I do, because fossil fuels are what is driving the vast majority of climate change. He is proposing, as Minister for the environment, who has responsibility for climate action, to import the dirtiest fossil fuel possible. That is what he is proposing. He is saying now to not worry. He is not saying it is not going to be US fracked gas because he is correctly saying we cannot draw a distinction, which the previous Government tried to mislead people about by saying we could have LNG and to not worry because it would not be fracked gas. The Minister is admitting it could well be fracked gas, but he is not able to tell me that it is not going to be US fracked gas. I ask him to say on the record that this will not be US fracked gas.”
“The reason for that is that methane, rather than carbon dioxide, makes up the majority of LNG emissions, and methane is 80 times more damaging to the climate over a 20-year period, which is the crucial timeframe for avoiding catastrophic climate collapse.”
“The Minister has a very simple question in front of him. For the benefit of anyone watching these proceedings from outside the House, he receives the question in advance and his civil servants write an answer. The question asked whether the Minister and the Department have carried out, commissioned or consulted any research into the likely climate impact of US energy imported into Ireland. The Minister did not answer that question at all. I can only assume, therefore, that the answer is "No", and that the Minister is planning to import a lot of US LNG fracked gas into Ireland without even considering the climate impact. There is a peer-reviewed paper by Professor Robert Howarth which makes the case very convincingly that it is at least 33% worse than coal.”
“I asked the Minister previously if he was aware of the emissions impact that US LNG would have here, which is estimated to be at least 33% worse than coal. He initially ignored the question and then waffled on about it depending on various factors. I am asking again, more precisely, what research his Department has carried out, whether commissioned or consulted, into the likely climate impact of imported US LNG.”
“If US pharmaceutical companies say they want to leave, then instead of bailing them out, the Government should take that manufacturing into public ownership, using the skilled workforce that we now have, and direct it towards other markets. We also now need to invest in an alternative economic model based on quality, green public jobs. Ireland has a real opportunity to become a world leader in onshore and offshore renewable energy, including for export, via interconnectors.”
“History must not be allowed to repeat itself. Rather than bailing out US multinationals, the Government must be forced to bail out workers and protect living standards. Between the Future Ireland Fund, the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, the Apple tax money and Exchequer surpluses, the Government is sitting on more than €25 billion. That money should be used to bail out workers and invest in a new economic model. The maximum rates of jobseeker’s pay-related benefit must be increased to ensure all affected workers can benefit from it and do not suffer large drops in their income. In the event of layoffs by US multinationals and knock-on job losses in the wider economy, all workers must be protected, not just those who work for the multinationals.”
“There should no acceptance of the idea that the way out of this is to appease Trump by saying we are going to buy more liquefied natural gas, LNG, or more weapons, which will deepen the ecological crisis we are in. There should be no acceptance of a tax on workers’ living standards. People Before Profit’s only concern in this is to say “No” to attacks on workers’ living standards and health and safety standards. This is not our crisis and we should not be forced to pay for it. The last time the Government forced us to bail out the banks, it imposed years of crippling austerity that destroyed living standards. The EU stood behind it all the way, threatening a bomb going off in Dublin in order to ensure that working people in Ireland paid more of the cost of the European banking crisis than anywhere else in Europe.”
“We have warned for years about the unsustainable model into which the Irish Government and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael successively were digging us deeper and deeper. Those warnings were ignored. Their only concern is their bottom line and profits. They are not interested in jobs or wages and are certainly not interested in workers’ rights. The same is true of Donald Trump. What did the pathetic, grovelling visit, which was hailed by much of the media as a diplomatic success, result in? Which tariffs did it avert? Which massive new tariffs on pharmaceuticals did it avert? It proves that pandering to him is a waste of time. There should be no acceptance at this moment to drive down health and safety, labour and environmental standards. That is clearly an offensive interest of Trump.”
“While there is a lot of rhetoric in this debate about protecting workers, it is necessary to take the veil away from some of that rhetoric from the Government and some Opposition parties. Behind that veil, what they are really talking about is protecting the big US multinationals that have operations here, acting on the basis that big pharma and tech have the same interests as workers. That is simply not true. Look at Apple, which fought tooth and nail alongside our own Government to not pay us €14 billion in corporation tax it owed. Look at Pfizer which has been cutting jobs here long before the tariffs were threatened. Look at Twitter, now X, which fired 140 workers here by email just like Elon Musk is now doing for Trump. This is the moment to get out of our dependence on US multinational corporations.”
“Does the Minister of State accept there is an unfairness here? There are students this year who, with a given set of results, will not achieve a college place they would have achieved last year or the year before or whatever. There is a fundamental unfairness here. I accept that within this artificial scarcity - an effectively fake market being created for the points system - it is difficult to have solutions that do not unfairly disadvantage someone but that entirely gets to the point that the problem is a lack of investment in our third level system. We have a much lower percentage of GDP in third level education than other EU countries and then there is this artificial scarcity. The points system has created a lucrative industry of grinds and private schools, systematically enshrining inequality in our education.”
“It is obviously unfair for this year's students to be marked harder than last year's but it is also unfair if students from previous years, who were told they got a certain number of points, were to have those points reduced, especially when they were never warned this could happen. I propose a more radical solution, which is the same radical solution we have been proposing since the start of the Covid crisis, namely, that there would be open access to university for all. On the radio last week, the Minister said that 80% to 90% of students get their top choice. Would it be so onerous to invest so that all of them get it?”
“The email stated that there was an unprecedented number of CAO applicants from previous years - one in four and that, since 25% of this year's CAO applicants would have a huge advantage over the 75% of leaving cert students sitting the exams in June 2025, students from this year would miss out on places they should be offered if the Department did not address this urgently. I cannot understand how the Minister of State is going to stand over this unfairness, how he cannot see the problem that is here or the many potential solutions that are being suggested that will not unfairly disadvantage anyone.”
“I am sure the Minister of State has probably been inundated as I have - probably more so than me - with emails from worried leaving cert students, parents and teachers about the unfair disadvantage that this year's students will be put at due to the Government's grade deflation proposals. This is not just a question of next year or the year after. It is something that will have an impact on young people for the rest of their lives. An email from one worried parent put the problem very well. It stated that the students between 2020 and 2024 had a massive advantage over any other leaving cert students they competed against. According to the email, in 2024, average grade inflation was 7.5% while in 2025 it will be lowered to 5.5% and, therefore, the class of 2025 will get approximately 15 or 16 points fewer than last year's class.”
“As with the occupied territories Bill, nothing has happened. Last week, Independent Senators introduced a Private Members' Bill to try to force the Government to act and the Minister for Transport claimed that there was a genuine concern about how this legislation could actually be implemented. The Ditch is publishing the receipts for these flights. Why does the Taoiseach not announce that any airlines found to be carrying munitions through Irish airspace to Israel during the genocide will have their operating licences revoked or is the Government going to continue to deepen its complicity in genocide by allowing these flights to go through and Israeli war bonds to be authorised by the Irish Central Bank?”
“Just last week, a plane from Lufthansa flew through Irish airspace carrying about a tonne of munitions to Israel to be used in the horrific genocide in Gaza. I watched a video just yesterday on social media of a beheaded baby in Gaza. Tens of tonnes of munitions have passed through Irish airspace on their way to Israel to murder innocent people. This is not legal. Unless these flights have exemptions, and I understand these flights do not have exemptions, they are not allowed to do it. There seems to be no consequences whatsoever for major commercial carriers like Lufthansa flying weapons through Irish airspace without an exemption. Before the last election, the then Government sounded very concerned about all of this. It said it would act and there was talk of legislation to enable random checks on planes.”
“However, the broader question remains unanswered, which is how this was able to happen and continue over a period of time. It may have continued were it not for a very brave whistleblower who spoke out resulting in parliamentary questions and a series of important articles by Pádraig Ó Meiscill in The Ditch. Those questions remain unanswered, which is why the families are calling for a public inquiry into everything that happened here - how it was able to take place. Does the Taoiseach agree with this call? Does he agree that it should be expanded to include all of the operations performed by this surgeon, including those on adults? I have been contacted by at least one adult with serious concerns about how they were treated. I raised it previously in the Dáil. If the surgeon was operating in this way with children, why not with adults?”
“I want to raise the crucial issue of child well-being in terms of children with scoliosis, in particular three children who had unauthorised metal springs inserted in them by a surgeon. The report was published at 12 noon, so I have only had the chance to read the executive summary so far but it makes for pretty horrifying reading, including making the point that the type of metal is "known to corrode in the presence of moisture". In other words, it could have effectively been rusting in children, which is horrific to think of. The Taoiseach made the point earlier, which I agreed with, that what happened should not have happened and that an important responsibility needs to be taken here by the surgeon responsible for buying the springs and inserting them into the children.”
“We really need to take time this week to debate the HIQA report and to try to learn some lessons from the horrific abuse of some children at Temple Street hospital. The Taoiseach made the point earlier that the insertion of springs should not have happened and that responsibility lies with the surgeon. I agree 100%. The question, however, is how that was allowed to happen and to continue. If it was not for a whistleblower, a series of parliamentary questions and the reporting of The Ditch , this could still be happening today. There is another related scandal of children being put through unnecessary hip surgeries. It is why the families are calling for a public inquiry. They are right to do so. We need to debate this issue in the Dáil.”
“It has been almost two years since the publication of Dr. Shannon's report on sex abuse of children at St. John Ambulance. The report makes for harrowing reading. The report found that a culture had facilitated the potential grooming of children and that the organisation had failed to intervene, despite knowing that the boys were at risk of abuse. It concluded that the organisation had failed to act against the perpetrator for years, despite "a significant degree of organisational awareness of the risk that he posed to children". Survivors who have bravely campaigned, spoken out about this and pushed for the report, including Mick Finnegan, have an apology but they have no accountability. There has been no accountability whatsoever. They are calling for a public inquiry into how this happened and how it was able to go on for so long.”
“As noted by the ICJ in its Namibia judgment: "The qualification of a situation as illegal does not by itself put an end to it. It can only be the first, necessary step in an endeavour to bring the illegal situation to an end." The Minister has a legal obligation to do everything he can to stop the genocide and he is not currently doing it.”
“It is not a question of language. The Minister might find it offensive for it to be said that he is complicit in genocide but it is the truth. He says he condemns what is happening in Israel. That is good but then the Central Bank is allowing this to happen. It is helping it to be financed. That is a fact. We can see the way these bonds are advertised online as facilitating its "war" in Gaza but then the Minister is saying it is fine. Even if what he is saying is correct in terms of the legal framework of the Central Bank, he can change that legal framework. He has not made the case that he legally cannot. The OPLA advice concludes: A PMB can provide for restricted access to its financial services on the basis of public policy grounds that are rooted in the Ireland’s fundamental interest in pursuing its international law obligations.”
“Does he really think it is okay for the Central Bank to facilitate the sale of these bonds? Approximately €3 billion or so have been sold since 7 October 2023. These are used to buy white phosphorous and bombs and have been used to kill 45,000 plus people, of whom 20,000 were children, in Gaza.”
“Shameful. The Minister says he is not complicit and yet he is saying he will do nothing about it. The Central Bank of Ireland allows Israeli war bonds that are used to commit this genocide to be sold in the EU. The Minister repeats the excuses of the Governor of the Central Bank that its only framework is to check whether the prospectus meets the standards of completeness, comprehensibility and consistency but it does not do that. The bond prospectus withholds ethical and risk-related information. It does not mention the genocide charge at the ICJ and Israel's profiting from weaponry that is field tested in Gaza. It is not comprehensive, complete or consistent. After backing up the Central Bank's excuse for doing nothing about it, the Minister says he will not do anything about it. Legally, he can do something about it.”
“The Taoiseach was very exercised on Tuesday by the suggestion that the Irish State was complicit in genocide. One of the ways we are complicit in genocide is by the authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland of Israeli war bonds for sale in the EU. Despite all the evidence that these are used to fund the genocide, the Governor of the Central Bank has refused to act. If this continues, will the Government instead act to make it so that the Central Bank will not sell bonds for countries that are facing the charge of genocide?”
“One of the slumlords listed, Joe Somerville, who was paid more than €1 million a year by the State for emergency homeless accommodation in 2022 and 2023, has a history of illegally evicting tenants in order to turn their homes into emergency accommodation. It is not an isolated example. The owner of TramCo in Rathmines has been attempting to do the same - illegally evict long-standing tenants to turn the building into homeless accommodation. This has been thankfully stopped for now by action by the tenants supported by the Community Action Tenants Union, CATU. That is the kind of grassroots action in a mass movement that we need to beat this Government.”
“That is what it would do if it was serious about addressing this crisis. Of course, the Government has no problem handing out ever bigger wads of cash to landlords and to operators of private emergency accommodation. That is what the threats to abolish the rent pressure zones are about - removing any and all limits to rates of profit in the housing market so that rents and prices can skyrocket even further. The Currency reported last week that, in 2023, the Government paid private property owners €140 million for emergency accommodation. A typical example is €1 million a year for tenement-style accommodation on Gardiner Street in Dublin where the State is paying through the nose to warehouse more than 1,000 people in a giant slum.”
“They had agreements with their landlord. They had been told they were finally to get their forever home; now they have had that cruelly snatched away from them by the Government. In one case I am dealing with, the person has been going through this never-ending process for 18 month but now everything is paused. She is facing into homelessness for no other reason than the Government is dragging its feet, presumably in an effort to cut the cost of the scheme. We know that the new budget will buy a lot fewer homes than the old one and that the point of the restrictions and prioritisation being imposed is to make sure that fewer people get it. The Government must reinstate this scheme immediately and increase the budget to the level needed to provide for everyone who needs to access it.”
“Ten years ago, the then Government had a target of ending long-term homelessness by 2016. Then it was ending the use of hotels for homeless people by July 2016. There is no target for ending homelessness now. In fact, it is the reverse; the Government seems absolutely content to watch the homeless figures go up, month after month. The only time it gets concerned about them is when an election is coming and then it lies about the numbers and it delays putting them out. The latest example of the Government's could-not-care-less attitude is its reckless suspension of the tenant in situ scheme. The effect in my constituency and right across the country has been to take away the only thing standing between families and homelessness. There are families already in this process for many months. The average waiting time is a year.”
“This morning more than 4,600 children in one of the richest countries in the world woke up in emergency accommodation. For most of the past ten years, the Government parties have insisted that housing is its top priority. I do not know how they managed to keep a straight face through most of that but actions speak louder than words. Two years ago this week, the Government lifted the eviction ban. We predicted what would happen, and it did. There was a massive increase in homelessness from 9,825 in March 2023 to 15,378 at the end of February - a jump of 57%. The truth is that the whole time the priority has been to increase property prices so that landlords, landowners, developers, vulture funds and banks can keep making profits. I am not sure that the Government is even pretending that the housing crisis is a top priority anymore.”
“People Before Profit strongly support this motion. We thank Deputy Healy, not only for bringing forward this motion today but for years of pushing the necessity of legally recognising the housing emergency as an emergency and the necessity for radical action. The motion contains the kind of emergency measures that the Government should have been implementing ten years ago. I was first elected in 2014. That year, there was a similar motion which called for recognition of a housing emergency. It was rejected by the Fine Gael-Labour Government. At the time, when we were rightly saying it was an emergency, 3,607 homeless were people living in emergency accommodation. Ten years later, the housing crisis has escalated so much that there is more than four times that many people trapped in that terrible situation.”
“Because it is a right wing Government without a mudguard that is preparing to ram through a series of highly unpopular measures. They are right to be afraid about the prospect of street politics because it is street politics that will ultimately beat them.”
“The rules that protect those rights were deliberately, consciously and repeatedly broken by the Ceann Comhairle last week. It is her job to protect those rules and to ensure they are abided by but instead she broke them one after the other. There was the unprecedented situation of a vote being called on the Order of Business and no vote being granted. It was an incredible, unprecedented situation of the Government's own proposal for Standing Orders not actually being voted on and simply deemed passed and the agenda simply ripped up for the day, including a Government backbench First Stage Bill simply forgotten about. The Government parties are absolutely right to draw the comparison with creeping authoritarianism internationally. It is them who are engaged in it. Why?”
“What we have heard from the Government benches is an incredibly narrow view of what democracy means. You could paraphrase the Chief Whip with "We won, you lost, we can do whatever we want.". I am sorry but that is not democracy. Where is the space in that for the rights of minorities? Where is the space in that for the rights of opposition?”
“Deputy Boyd Barrett has spoken about how she was effectively forced to remove her underwear. Her private parts were touched and looked inside of, and she was subjected to a cavity search. In addition to that, her hijab was confiscated to check if it was allowed before being returned to her. She said, "After the procedures were completed, I was released with a warning that if I participated in any further events, I would be punished, and that this was my only chance." What sort of repressive State is this that is operating in such a way? This needs immediate condemnation from the Garda. We need to be assured that people have the right to protest without being treated in such a way.”
“These mothers were protesting from Mother's Day. They were protesting in support of the Occupied Territories Bill, which the Taoiseach promised would be passed during the election. They were protesting to stop weapons going through Irish airspace, which continues and is increasing and which the Taoiseach has refused to do anything about. I hope he will support the arms embargo Bill coming up in the Seanad tomorrow. They were protesting against complicity on the genocide and slaughter that is taking place in Gaza, and how were they treated? They were forcibly removed by the gardaí. Fourteen were arrested and then, like Deputy Boyd Barrett said, what is coming out about how they were treated in the Garda stations is absolutely horrific. I will quote the same person Deputy Boyd Barrett just did. She is a Palestinian woman.”
“It is clear where the Minister for Sitka spruce, Michael Healy-Rae's emphasis is. Blatant greenwashing and forestry for profit is not going to avert the climate and biodiversity catastrophes that we face. Will the Taoiseach outline how this came about and will he reverse track on the current forestry-for-profit model that is turning counties like Leitrim into biodiversity dead zones?”
“One of the things that Storm Éowyn exposed was the lack of resilience in our monocultural forestry model. Unfortunately, this is set to get worse due to Coillte's recent decision to silently scrap Coillte Nature, its not-for-profit wing that is supposed to be dedicated to the restoration, regeneration and rehabilitation of nature across Ireland. In Orwellian fashion, Coillte claims that scrapping Coillte Nature will allow it to reach its climate and biodiversity targets. Is this to be done through the Nature Trust, which sells woodland credits to companies in return for investment in planting? Coillte tries to inspire confidence by claiming that this is not a carbon offsetting programme but Bank of Ireland, which developed the Nature Trust woodland credit scheme, describes it as "a carbon offsetting social enterprise".”
“Their principals should not be running around having to fundraise based on how much money is in their areas and how large a population is served by their schools. This is a basic public service that the State needs to provide. I have given two examples of schools in just one constituency where the principals are saying they will have no choice, if they do not get more money, but to close. A motion proposed in the Dáil by the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, recognised that there was chronic underfunding of our primary schools. The Taoiseach now seems to be stepping back from that acknowledgement. The answer is not to victim-blame the principals and schools but to provide proper funding for our primary schools so that they are not placed in this situation.”
“It is quite incredible that the Taoiseach is blaming a school, which was put in a position by his Government and by the Department of Education, for being in a situation such that the management felt there was no alternative but to say the school will close its doors. It is incredible. The Taoiseach is victim-blaming and gaslighting these principals across the country who likely do not want to be in this position. The Taoiseach says the Department was in touch with the school I mentioned in December and there was no response. What did the Department say? Its financial unit, the FSSU, contacted the principal in December and told her to reach out to her community to help fund the school. That is shameful. These schools are not charities.”
“However, our public primary schools are faced with potential closure because the State refuses to adequately fund them. Will the Taoiseach and the Government act to enable our primary schools to remain open? Does the Taoiseach accept that advance funding is not a long-term solution to the crisis facing these schools? Will he commit to doubling the capitation grant for primary schools and increasing the minor works grant and ancillary services grant? Finally, will he outline what the new DEIS plus status, which is promised in the programme for Government, will mean? What extra funding will be provided?”
“Hundreds are in acute financial distress, and the cause is clear. It was recognised by this Dáil last June, when it passed a motion saying that we have chronic underfunding of our primary schools. These schools have been just about surviving with cost-of-living supports that the Government now appears to be planning to stop. It leaves schools in the situation where they are expected to fundraise for the very basics to keep the schools open. It deepens educational inequality. It puts added stress on school communities. However, the Government is still throwing money at private schools. Last year the Government spent €143 million paying the salaries of teachers in private fee-paying schools and gave them ICT and capital funding grants worth €1.9 million.”
“Last Friday I was contacted by the principal of another school, Holy Spirit Junior Primary School in Greenhills. She said: The fact of the matter is, we have approx. €8000 in the bank. From this €8000 we are expected to pay €10,000 worth of utility bills, pay a caretaker, a bus escort and cleaner wages, buy resources for students, employ a plumber for a terrible smell on a corridor, not to mention all the other general maintenance costs including in the upkeep of our school building and grounds. The school states clearly that without adequate financial support from the Department, it is facing "the very real possibility of having to close our doors". The Taoiseach knows these are not two isolated examples. I know of others in my own constituency. Seven out of ten primary schools nationwide are running deficits.”
“Two weeks ago, I raised the crisis facing Sacred Heart Junior National School in Killinarden with the Taoiseach. It was forced to write to the Department of Education saying it would close its doors because it could not pay the bills. It first flagged a shortfall of €26,000 last October. The crisis worsened. The school was in touch with the Department repeatedly but no extra funding was forthcoming. Two weeks ago the Taoiseach said that he believed the issue was resolved. This issue is not resolved. The can has simply been kicked down the road by providing an advance on capitation funding, which means that, yes, the school is open today but the debt will be even worse come September. Sacred Heart Junior National School is just the canary in the coalmine. The senior school at Sacred Heart faces a funding crisis come September.”
“Not eight but 56 minutes of that time is going to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry group in the form of Leaders' Questions, priority questions to Ministers and extra time on Private Members' business.”
“The Taoiseach has repeatedly told the Dáil, and did so again today, that this is about eight minutes of time and that the Opposition is not losing a single minute of speaking time. I ask him to confirm that is not true and is not something the media should be repeating without interrogation because it is not based on facts. You are cutting Opposition time every single week by 69.5 minutes. You are halving from a meagre minute to 30 seconds for each group to oppose the Order of Business. You are halving the time for Taoiseach's questions from 90 minutes a week to 45 minutes a week - hundreds of questions that will simply go unanswered because you do not want to be held accountable. You are cutting time for the Opposition groups in Private Members' time by 22 minutes a week. Where is that time going?”
“When we voted no to the Nice treaty in 2001 because of worries about the drive of militarisation, the reaction of the Government at the time, made up of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, including the current Taoiseach, was to add an official declaration to the treaty to include the triple lock. That was the solemn promise given to the people of this country made by our current Taoiseach. It promised us that Irish troops would not be sent overseas without the authorisation of the Security Council or the General Assembly. That is the reason the Nice treaty passed the second time around but the Government is proposing to get rid of it without going back to the people and allowing the people to decide.”
“It is a joke that the Government wants to get rid of the triple lock but still tells us not to worry and that we will still operate within the UN Charter. The UN Charter is what is outlined precisely in the triple lock. For at least 65 years, since the Defence (Amendment) Act 1960, an international force or body established by the Security Council or the General Assembly is what an international United Nations force needs. That is a core meaning of Irish neutrality rooted in the colonial past and present of this island. Let us remember that the triple lock was endorsed by the people in a referendum.”
“The Taoiseach repeatedly said yesterday that not a single minute of speaking time is being taken off the Opposition. Today, our group gets 13 minutes and 20 seconds in this debate. Next week, however, if the Government gets away with it, we will get ten minutes. The same goes for all the Opposition parties. Our time is being cut to facilitate the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Lowry group. The fundamental point is that the triple lock is the expression of what is outlined in the Constitution, namely, that “Ireland accepts the generally recognised principles of international law as its rule of conduct in its relations with other States.” That means, under Irish and international law, the only two situations in which it is legal to use military force is in self-defence or under a UN mandate.”