Neutrality and Triple Lock: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (SF), Donegal

The Irish people cherish our tradition of military neutrality. It was part of our independence and identity as a people who were colonised and who suffered at the hands of oppressors. It gave us the moral weight to engage in the defence of human rights in the pursuit of conflict resolution and the honourable service of our Defence Forces in peacekeeping around the world. Irish people are deeply proud of that tradition.
I remember well when the Lisbon treaty was debated in 2008. Irish people rejected that treaty, and as the Minister knows, they also rejected the Nice treaty at the first ask. After the rejection of the Lisbon treaty, the then Government of Fianna Fáil, of course supported by Fine Gael, came forward with a solemn national declaration, an assurance to the Irish people because what heavily influenced their vote in 2008 was the loss of our cherished tradition of neutrality. The then Government gave a solemn declaration, so for the current Government to walk away from it and remove the key element of the triple lock is essentially saying that the Government wants the power to send our troops into military alliances that our people have rejected in referendums.
The only honourable option, if the Government wants to take that path, is to put it to the Irish people in a referendum. I have heard Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Ministers and other TDs here tonight protesting that they also cherish our tradition of neutrality and that there is nothing to see here, nothing to worry about, that everything is okay and that nothing has changed. If the Government is confident in that position, it is very simple: it must put this to the Irish people in a referendum. The Minister can nod her head if she wishes but she knows that her party and Fianna Fáil made a solemn declaration to the Irish people to get them to vote for the Lisbon treaty on the second ask. For the Government to dishonour that declaration is reprehensible. It is shameful and the Minister knows it. It is deeply wrong. If the Government believes, and is confident in the approach it is taking, that it is not in defiance of our traditional position of neutrality, put it to the Irish people in a referendum. That is what our motion calls for and the Government needs to support it.

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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