Common Foreign and Security Policy
Dail Éireann — 2022-01-27
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

This country is supposed to be neutral. That is, frankly, laughable, when you consider we have allowed Shannon Airport to be used again and again by the US military to prosecute brutal, murderous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to know what neutrality means when the Minister goes to a conference in Brest where we discuss the French project, which is a major European powers project to increase the militarisation of the European Union, including an absolutely open call for the establishment of a European army, and where NATO calls on the EU to increase military expenditure at the same time that NATO is expanding towards Russia. Do not get me wrong, the Russians should be condemned for massing troops in Ukraine and having exercises off our waters, but NATO is doing exactly the same thing. It is ratcheting it up and the EU is discussing more military expenditure. Where is the voice of neutrality in saying we should be stepping back from this? We should not be spending more on arms. Is the Minister saying that?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-01-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-01-27