Military Neutrality Dail Éireann — 2023-05-16 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central That person has a distinguished academic record. She was born in Waterford and rose to the top in the academic world in Oxford and the UK. She has a record in her own right as a political scientist. She is a person who will chair this consultative forum in an admirable, objective way. It speaks to the Deputy's hostility to anything this side of the House might suggest in respect of defence and security. He talks about subsea cables. Subsea cables are important to this country. They are important to many countries across Europe and the free world, which is the world for which the Deputy has great disdain. The economic well-being of Irish citizens depends on the protection of subsea cables. The livelihoods of thousands and thousands of workers who the Deputy claims to represent depend on the security of subsea cables. There is nothing wrong with Ireland asking for assistance or being a party, with non-NATO countries----- --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-05-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:53+00:00 Sitting date: 2023-05-16