Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2023-11-23
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I was 12 years of age in 1972, when the referendum on joining the European community took place. Parties across here opposed it at the time. There were groups, which are still at it today, arguing that if we joined what is now the European Union, we would have NATO troops and nuclear warheads parading down O'Connell Street within a few weeks. This is what was said as far back as 1972 and I have heard the same mantra throughout the debates on all the European treaties since then, which people have opposed, and it never happened. We put a provision into the Constitution which prohibits us from joining a European Union common defence pact, yet we are happy to go along with Russia and the Wagner Group replacing UN missions in areas-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-11-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-11-23