Defence Matters: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25 ============================================================ Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland It can be broken down into the different points. This was the ambitious target that was set. It can be broken down in terms of parts and aspects. What was being examined by the finance committee was Security Action for Europe, SAFE, and the proposals from the Commission. We heard from the Commission. Its representatives spoke to us for an hour. There is an intention to redirect common investment away from areas such as just transition and climate action. We know that the one guaranteed security threat that we face globally is climate action. The intention is to redirect money out of funds that had previously gone to climate action. That goes right down to those LIFE payments that go to farmers around the country. That money will now go into a competitiveness fund, competing against military expenditure on things such as drones. There are also the larger areas of the multi-annual financial framework and our social and cohesion funding. We in Ireland know the importance of social and cohesion funding. It is the actual underpinning of peace. What builds peace is working on, and investing in, social cohesion at a time when we have seen, for example, extreme moves to the right in many parts of Europe. Social cohesion is badly needed. We also saw where the money is going. This again is, in particular, in terms of the loans that Europe and Ireland are underwriting. For those who are concerned about the positions that Hungary and others have taken, €16 billion in loans has been given to Hungary. That is €16 billion in military expenditure by Hungary being underwritten by Ireland and the other member states. These are facts. They are in the finance committee report. They were given to us by the European Commission. We have a breakdown, we have a grid and we know where that money is going. We also know that money being underwritten by Ireland and others through these loans is going to cluster munitions. It was confirmed that the money can go to cluster munitions. We know that, sadly, many of our colleagues in Europe have withdrawn from the anti-personnel mine convention or, in the case of Lithuania and Finland, have withdrawn from the Convention on Cluster Munitions. That convention was negotiated in Ireland. These are key areas of expenditure we have to be asking about but I do not have time to go into further detail. I urge a reading of the finance committee report on defence spending. Let us get back to the question of the triple lock. The word "peacekeeping" has been used again and again. We need to be clear what the proposal is. The proposal is not solely in relation to the UN Security Council. There have been strong calls for Ireland to take a strong stance on Uniting for Peace and to make use of the Uniting for Peace mechanism within the General Assembly. That mechanism is under way. No caveat states that these are only deployments that will happen in situations where the Security Council and General Assembly have refused to act. This is a bypassing of the system and the Security Council. It is not an additional action that comes afterwards. It is a bypassing of the United Nations at a time when the UN is being systematically undermined, including by measures such as the Board of Peace, which is, effectively, a colonisers' club to which the EU has, sadly, sent a delegate. The other point that must be noted in the context of the removal of the triple lock is that there is a proposal that is not about peacekeeping. It is also about strengthening international security. They are looking to bypass the UN process. This is, as I said, not about adding a safeguard that comes after a failure to secure permission for peacekeeping from the Security Council and the General Assembly. The intention is to directly move towards an alternative way of deploying troops internationally. That is because it is not solely for peacekeeping. The Bill is explicit. It also includes strengthening international security, whatever that might mean, as a reason. We already had exclusions where there were abductions or issues with securing an embassy. All of those were already there as exemptions. This is allowing the large-scale deployment of Irish troops by the Government without recourse to the UN for reasons of strengthening international security. This is from an Irish Government that is unwilling to say "Boo" on the areas where it could make a difference, such as international law. If Ireland wanted to be impactful, we would be the champions for international law right now and would be bringing that through. We would be the hardest regulators of those who have sown and promoted disinformation, and of the digital sector, many of whom have been aligned in many ways. The US has two of the largest armies in the world, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE. That has not protected it from concerns relating to, for example, Russian influence. What protects us is the international rule of law. I will make one last point, but I have so many. I see we are going to have new powers of inspection in the naval area. That is fine. Why are we not using our powers of inspection and boarding in respect of the flights we know are moving through Shannon Airport at the moment? We know that Palestinian prisoners have been taken through the airport. It does not seem that a waiver was sought for the weapons that may have been on board. Perhaps a waiver was given and we are unaware of it. I will finish shortly. I have a tiny quote that is important. It is a simple one. It is from a former member of the navy, who was involved in Operation Sophia. The member had a baby in their arms, rescued from the Mediterranean Sea at a time when Ireland rescued 8,000 people in a single year, and stated, "At this moment, you are safe in my arms." The member also stated, "Making a difference is one of the reasons we all joined the [Defence Forces] and, in terms of making a difference, this was really second to none." Yet, in 2017 the Government moved, when former Deputy, Paul Kehoe was the Minister, from primarily humanitarian search and rescue operations to primarily security and interception operations. Ireland is losing the unique contribution that made people proud to be a part of our Defence Forces by losing ourselves in a military agenda that is, in fact, turning its back on our humanitarian contribution to the world. I urge us to look to our strengths and lean into them. --- 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/seanad/2026-02-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-25