I am as honest as you are, Garret.

I want to raise issues about disability rights. I received a letter from a 12-year-old girl called Holly from Killiney in Dublin who was writing about her ten-year-old brother Ciaran, who is in third class in Our Lady of Good Counsel in Johnstown, Killiney. She is terrified about what will happen to him arising from the proposed changes to the provision of special needs assistants in primary school. I have permission from her parents to read this here. It was addressed to "Dear people of the Taoiseach". That is the…

I did not get what the Cathaoirleach said.

I beg the Cathaoirleach’s pardon. Sorry.

I thank the Minister for being here. I have a lot of questions, which I will try to get through within the allotted four minutes. We do not have a defence strategy published as yet-----

Is Senator Craughwell not speaking?

Okay. We do not have a defence strategy published and therefore, in the context of this plan, will the Minister explain to the House why she is spending €600 million on armoured fighting vehicles to equip, I am assuming, mechanised infantry formations and mechanised armoured formations? What threat is that going to meet? What is the Minister's concept of that threat? Does she expect a land or ground invasion of similarly equipped mechanised infantry? If not, what is the purpose of that? Is it fit for purpose in the…

-----but it is certainly misinformation.

And if it is not misinformation, it is certainly misinformed to say that.

The other thing is the Minister spoke about peacekeeping. Does the Minister think there will be a peacekeeping mission in our lifetime? I tell her now there will not be because that era, the Cold War era of classic peacekeeping Chapter VI missions, is over. That is why the UN Security Council put an end to the UNIFIL mandate in Lebanon. I heard Members of this House ask whether Irish soldiers could not stay on? If Irish soldiers stay on without a UN Security Council mandate they will be slaughtered either by Hezbol…

I am posing a hypothetical question to illustrate the point that by removing the triple lock the Minister will allow a community of decision-makers who are unaccountable, do not come to the committee and do not answer our questions to make decisions like that. Their track record of decision making has been absolutely catastrophic for the State, our Defence Forces and our security. We are Europe’s weakest link because of the decisions of that community of decision-makers that the Minister is asking us to trust in th…

-----because the authorities did not act on the information that I put into the public domain 25 years ago. That is the community of decision makers we are dealing with and the Minister wants us to trust them? She wants us to trust them to formulate a defence strategy-----

-----or to continue to operate without the oversight of the committee-----

Thank you.

Apologies.

I want to raise, as we are going into year five of conflict in Ukraine, the courage and fortitude of the Ukrainian people. Since the invasion began, I have written about 40 in-depth analysis pieces for The Journal and other newspapers, giving very forensic accounts of how the Ukrainians have managed to stop Putin's special military operation. From Kharkiv to Kramatorsk to Sloviansk to Zaporizhzhia to Kyiv to Odesa to Lviv, what the Ukrainians have achieved has been extraordinary. It has benefited all of us here and…

I want to ask a question. I did not want to interrupt Senator Keogan. Is it within the Standing Orders of this House to identify one nationality or ethnic group for hostile scrutiny?

Because that community has been subjected to harassment and assault-----

I have Indian personal assistants-----

-----beautiful young men working with my son who are afraid to go north of the Liffey - and I am from north of the Liffey – for fear of assault or intimidation. I think as public representatives-----