EU Presidency
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-05
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Neale Richmond (FG), Dublin Rathdown

Absolutely. As I said, I have no issue with European member states or the Union investing in security and defence. It is sensible, but I do not think you can make the argument that money can be taken from development and not expect to end up spending more on security and defence as a result. The Deputy mentioned early intervention and the source of the conditionality of aid. Something I am concerned about is the notion of tied aid. We do not believe in tied aid. We believe in development being the right thing to do and being an investment. It is an investment in people that will be paid off, not in our terms but perhaps on their terms. That is the empowerment of people, including making sure that women and girls have the same opportunities for human rights, dignity and education that we take for granted, but there is a regression on that.
I will make a particular reference to peacebuilding and the work of Irish Aid in Columbia and in the very fragile peace process in Liberia. That was a peace process that started with Irish peacekeepers and is going from strength to strength. The fact that people are willing to remove resources from that is just creating a recipe for potential disaster.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-05