Article 20 of Treaty on European Union Regarding Enhanced Co-operation: Motion
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-27
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Paul Nicholas Gogarty (IND), Dublin Mid-West

I reiterate that I fully support the need to help our neighbours in Ukraine. This is part of an EU contribution. It does not alter Ireland's military neutrality or the triple lock. It is purely about enhanced financial co-operation under Article 20 of the Treaty on European Union. It is nothing to do with defence or security commitments and our neutrality has been respected by our EU partners before.
Obviously, as others have raised in the Dáil, we may not like how some of our EU partners spend their money. That is a fair comment. I note one of the amendments tries to tie in and ring-fence the Irish contribution in terms of where it is spent, and I do believe we need more scrutiny in that regard. However, overall, because Ukraine was invaded by Russia and because Russia is terrorising innocent people every single day of the year, they need weaponry for defence and offence in certain situations. That is something Europe as a whole needs to provide.
We have given commitment for non-military assistance and long may that continue. Obviously, we want to see peace as quickly as possible.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:01+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-27