Defence and Neutrality: Motion [Private Members] Dail Éireann — 2026-05-20 ============================================================ Brian Stanley (IND), Laois I acknowledge the work of Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon and in other missions overseas, particularly those serving in Lebanon currently given the actions of the terrorist Israeli State. I also acknowledge the work of volunteers who have campaigned and continue to campaign to uphold neutrality. I thank all those from the Opposition benches who spoke on it this morning. I note that not one Fianna Fáil Deputy has darkened the door to come in and to defend what is being proposed here. That is interesting and speaks for itself. The motion calls on the Government to uphold the policy of neutrality and the triple lock as set out in the Defence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1960 and the solemn national declarations attached to the Nice and Lisbon treaties; to recognise that these commitments regarding the triple lock and neutrality can only be changed or amended by a majority of the electorate in a referendum; to recognise that the triple lock and neutrality are intrinsically linked, as set out by Micheál Martin; to strengthen the State's policy of neutrality by bringing forward a referendum to enshrine it in the Constitution. If the Minister really believes in it, which she said a number of times, enshrine it in the Constitution; to work with other neutral and non-aligned countries to reform and re-establish the primacy of the UN as the forum to uphold international law and for resolving international disputes and conflicts; to abide by the principal of multilateralism and not allow the State to be become part of any regional force; and to halt plans to progress the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025, which is about abandoning neutrality, and respect the will of the people. Being neutral does not inhibit us in any way from having a level of co-operation with other states. Being neutral does not stop us from enhancing and modernising our Defence Forces and the protecting the likes of undersea cables. It does not stop us from increasing the numbers in the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service or having modern equipment. It is the Government parties that have presided over the running down of the Defence Forces. I welcome the fact that some money is being invested in them and there have been some improvements but there is a lot more to do. Poor pay and conditions and lack of investment have been at the core of the problem. Next Tuesday night at 8 p.m., there will be a meeting on neutrality in the parish centre in Portlaoise. I am just getting in that plug with the indulgence of the Ceann Comhairle. Who are the people sent to war? They are not the sons and daughters of the militarists. It is the working class that is sent to the front line. The arms industry in Europe, led by Germany, is banging the war drums but, of course, we have cohorts banging the war drums at home. There have been over 50 articles in the media calling for the abandonment of the triple lock, with hardly any articles putting forward the counter position. Week after week, we hear from people like Brigid Laffan, Dan O'Brien, Dan Mulhall, John O'Brien and Ben Tonra banging the war drum and churning out the propaganda that we must abolish the triple lock and abandon our policy of neutrality. A conditioning process is happening to convince people to transfer money away from spending on agriculture, social cohesion and important matters like health, education and housing and use that money to buy guns. Brigid Laffan was very clear about it. When she was asked what she meant by Brendan O'Connor recently, she said that it is about guns. The Minister said here a number of times, and told me and a number of members at the defence committee, that we are not going to join NATO but we do not have to join it. The boys and girls at the top of NATO know this. Why do they know this? It is because the Government is already joining in and signing up to joint missions and partnerships with all sorts of names and terms used as a cover for participating and being aligned with NATO. That is the reality. That is the conditioning process. We are supposed to be neutral. I remember being at Shannon Airport. The one and only time I was there was in 2008 and I was horrified to see the number of American troops in American Army uniforms going through the airport and the military overflights. The Government at the time signed up to allow this. We cannot allow that to continue in light of the slaughter that happened in Iraq and Iran. We facilitated flights into and out of Shannon and flights over Ireland on military missions. That has to stop. We recently gave €90 million in aid to Ukraine. I support the €60 million for humanitarian purposes but I do not support the €30 million that was given to buy guns and bombs. You are firing guns and bombs into what is already an industrial war. That is the only way you could describe it. It is like trying to put out a fire by throwing petrol on it. A neutral country cannot do that. The boys and girls at the top of NATO are not worried because they already have the Government. Wolfe Tone was the first to enunciate Irish neutrality. Some 110 years ago, James Connolly hung a banner over Liberty Hall that read "We Serve Neither King Nor Kaiser But Ireland!" This is not about being isolationist. It is about us being a peaceful country, using our voice as an independent neutral country to stand up for what is right in a world run by bullies such as Trump and Putin and the terrorist State of Israel. I express my solidarity with the people who have been kidnapped by Israel and I urge the Government to take the strongest possible action. If it sees the Israeli ambassador, tell them to go home as soon as possible. It should expel the ambassador. They should be expelled and we should pass the sanctions Bill today to stop any trade with Israel. It is a disgrace that we co-operate in any way with it. We should continue our role as a peace-keeping country. --- 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/dail/2026-05-20/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-20