An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin

I want to raise in the House again the issue of the triple lock. We have all received the schedule of the Government's legislative programme, which says that the Bill will provide for the removal of the existing requirement regarding the triple lock. Make no mistake, this is in regard to the dispatch of the Defence Forces for service outside the State as part of an international force. What kind of force? If it does not have a UN mandate, if it is not blue helmets, then we are talking about a coalition of the willing, a stabilisation force, and Chapter VII missions, which are fighting missions.
There was a very interesting article in the Sunday Independent last weekend by the former Minister for Defence and Fianna Fáil TD Willie O'Dea, in which he seriously questions the logic and reasoning behind the abolition of the triple lock. His view is shared by me and many of my colleagues in opposition. Indeed, I know that this view is shared by some colleagues in government. We need to pause on this. As recently as last week, we saw a collective of decision-makers, a community of decision-makers, make the wrong decision about the deployment of the Defence Forces in aid to the civil power, which is a use-of-force operation. Thankfully, they were not needed, but in the history of the State we have never deployed troops against the population. I have been on both aid to the civil power and aid to the civil authority operations, going right back to the hunger strike riots, the destruction of the British Embassy and the Love Ulster parade riots in Dublin. Even Margaret Thatcher did not deploy the army against the miners in their protests. I absolutely accept that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, acted in good faith - he is a person for whom I have a great deal of respect - but it was the wrong decision. How can we trust those people to make the correct decision in the absence of the triple lock? We need a debate. I know the Leader shares my concerns, as do other members of the Oireachtas committee on defence and national security. We need to have a debate about having parliamentary oversight of these decisions.
I was delayed coming to the Chamber earlier because I was approached by a very senior politician who expressed serious concern about the spending of €600 million on armoured fighting vehicles that could be destroyed by €60,000 worth of flying drones. We have no oversight. We need to have the remit and to have a debate on this. I thank the Cathaoirleach for his latitude.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15