Can we group priority questions?

Excellent.

Building on the previous question and very much welcoming the additional capital provision provided for the Defence Forces next year, bringing the total capital pool to €176 million, what does the Minister expect to be delivered to the Defence Forces for that sum? He touched on the pay element. Does the Government have sufficient money in next year's budget to do the two things it needs to do? It will have to honour the new pay agreement, but there are also the particular defence commitments to enhancing pay to hol…

I very much welcome that. Some of those are very expensive projects, however, such as the two new CASA aeroplanes, the acquisition of the two New Zealand vessels and most of all, the primary radar system. They are each capable of gobbling up the bulk of the total capital allocation. Are we going to be seeing these acquisitions replicated for the next three years as an ongoing process to be paid for over a number of years? What will we get for our €176 million on the capital side for next year? That is the nub of my…

We could have built the Taj Mahal in the time it takes for the CASA aircraft.

I thank the Minister for his answer. To focus on the pay again, He told us that he expects 400 net additional personnel to be in place by the end of next year. To what will that bring the complement of our Permanent Defence Force? Second, the pay elements of the Commission on the Defence Forces report are outside the national pay agreement. What specifically has the Minister provided for next year to pay from that?

The first question was on the net numbers.

If we can get 400 net, it will be good.

How much of the additional budget is the Minister going to use to put money into defence?

Hear, hear.

Democracy.

On a point of order, it is unprecedented to have a non-financial resolution presented in the debate. We had much debate about establishing the fund. It is a huge chunk of public money and it is quite wrong that the Government wants to give a signal. It has to have the democratic authority to do that.

I ask that it be deferred until tomorrow at least.

On a point of order-----

The point of order is that it is unprecedented that a non-financial resolution be taken. Is the Chair happy to take non-financial resolutions on the nod?

We have a very broad agenda from the European Council to discuss and I can only deal with a few issues. First, I wish to hear a little bit more about what exactly is understood by the European political community. A preliminary discussion was had about it. In the Council conclusions, such a community was described as an aim to "foster political dialogue and cooperation to address issues of common interest so as to strengthen the security, stability and prosperity of the European continent". It is a sort of response…

In my initial commentary, I asked the Minister of State to give a fuller explanation to the House on what is exactly meant by “the European political community”. We know the French have this notion, which we were fearing, of a second tier of European membership. It seems to have morphed into this European political community. I would like to know, first, what the Minister of State understands by it and, second, what the Irish position is regarding it. My second question was again raised during my comments. We have …

What is it?

Hear, hear.

The Minister of State made a big effort to explain to us that the action plan on solidarity lanes will offer an alternative; in fact, it will not. The Commission explained to us that, at best, it will get half the volume of grain out of Ukraine, that is, 2.5 million tonnes per month as opposed to 5 million tonnes, and at much greater cost. How likely is the opening of the ports by way of the Turkish initiative?