Departmental Programmes
Dail Éireann — 2022-03-01
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

To return to my main point, war crimes are being committed and the security architecture has changed because of Putin's actions. I listened to what the Tánaiste said; he referenced Irish military neutrality. Equally, however, the global system of a rules-based, multilateral order has been turned upside down by Vladimir Putin, and that has implications. One issue I observe is the vulnerability of Europe. The European Union cherishes democracy, social systems, education, open and free trade and so on. All of that is now vulnerable. Given the scale of Putin's forces on the European Continent, be it naval, the air force or the more than 150,000 troops with missiles and every type of advanced weapon, can we honestly say it will not go beyond Ukraine? Talk to people in Estonia, the other Baltic countries or Poland. They do not see NATO as a warmonger. I said this in response to the Deputy last week. The grandmother of the Prime Minister of Estonia was deported to Siberia when Stalin took over after the Nazis. Her mother was six months old at the time. Estonia said after 1941 that it would never be alone again. That is why it joined the European Union and NATO. It gives them some semblance of security-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-03-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:50:12+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-03-01