Neutrality and Triple Lock: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Catherine Callaghan (FG), Carlow-Kilkenny

Before anything else, let us be clear about what is being debated here. Neutrality and the triple lock are not the same thing. Too often, they are spoken about as if they are interchangeable but they are not. We are all entitled to our opinions in this House, and that is healthy, but we are not entitled to our own facts. A claim does not become fact through repetition.
No matter how often it is asserted by Sinn Féin that the triple lock is somehow a neutrality protection mechanism, it is not. No matter how many times Sinn Féin says changing the triple lock is the same as abandoning our neutrality, it is not. Ireland's neutrality is a policy of the State. It is a sovereign choice about how Ireland engages with the world and, in particular, our decision not to join a military alliance. The triple lock, by contrast, is a legal mechanism governing the overseas deployment of members of the Defence Forces. It requires a UN mandate and Government and Dáil approval before certain deployments can take place.
The triple lock did not make Ireland neutral and it is not what keeps Ireland neutral. Ireland's neutrality is a long-standing policy of the State. Ireland was neutral before the triple lock was introduced and it will remain neutral regardless of how the mechanism is amended. As someone who has served in Óglaigh na hÉireann and as a UN peacekeeper in Lebanon, I know the extraordinary contribution Irish peacekeepers make around the world and the esteem in which they are held internationally. I can see very clearly that the question before us is not whether Ireland should remain neutral - it should and it will. Rather, the question is whether Ireland should decide where Irish peacekeepers serve. Neutrality is not what is at risk of being eroded, sovereignty is.
The Opposition sees a threat to neutrality where none exists, whereas I see a real threat to the sovereignty if Ireland cannot, and is not permitted to, decide for itself where its peacekeepers serve. I believe that by amending the triple lock we preserve our neutrality and reaffirm our sovereignty at the same time. Neutrality and sovereignty are not competing values. By amending the triple lock, we protect both.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16