Industrial Development (Amendment) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2026: Report Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Sinéad Gibney (SD), Dublin Rathdown I have to echo some of Deputy Boyd Barrett's sentiments, particularly around the disguising of a massive policy shift in our neutrality under the guise of industrial development legislation. In recent discussions with the Minister, Deputy McEntee, around this, I quoted the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, who spoke about the changing face of warfare. We know it is not just about building bullets that kill people now. It is much more complex and huge technological innovation is playing into the arms industry. It is not just bombs and bullets that kill people but everything behind that, around the technology and infrastructure of warfare. That is what we are dealing with and what we are pushing back on today. I will speak to amendments Nos. 2 and 5, both of which introduce guardrails around that. Amendment No. 2 adds the following text: "No grant under this section will be made for consultancy services which relate to military or defence activities." Amendment No. 5 adds: (8) No loans, investments or disposals of land shall be made by the IDA under this section to any company which engages in activities of military relevance, including defence manufacturing or providing military goods or services. (9) Enterprise Ireland and the IDA shall not cause a company to be formed and registered under this section if the purpose of that company is to engage in activities of military relevance, including defence manufacturing or providing military goods or services. The purpose of amendment No. 2 is to ensure grants for consultancy services for business are not for military-related purposes. The allowed purposes are technological innovation and digitalisation; environmental protection and sustainability; and business transformation, development and strategy. Our key concern in the Social Democrats is we are seeing militarisation creep into all of these aspects of businesses, particularly following the lead of the European Commission, which is actively seeking to integrate our tech innovation and industrial development as a European Union with the military and arms industries. That is not conspiracy or pie in the sky. That is overt and explicit policy direction coming from Brussels. The amendment seeks to ensure Irish taxpayer money is not directed to arms companies or to helping companies become arms companies. What is too often lost in this discussion is that there is an opportunity cost. Every cent directed from business support funds, EU Cohesion Funds or research funds to military businesses is money that the Government does not have to support family-run companies which are trying to navigate rising business costs, help local SMEs expand or help medical start-ups conduct important research. It means people who would otherwise focus their talents and efforts on a business that benefits the environment, makes a medical good or creates and innovates to support society are instead encouraged to follow the money and use that talent and effort to create a war economy. Amendment No. 5 further pushes that any material support provided by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland is not aimed at companies engaging in activities of military relevance, particularly that they do not take part in the formation of companies which do this. There is an inherent risk involved when Irish State agencies provide funding, lands or material supports, or become shareholders or create companies which engage in activities of military relevance. The principles underpinning this are simple. We do not want to pivot our economy towards war and arms, and that is what this does by stealth and in disguise. It is turning our backs on neutrality. The Government is already doing that with the Defence Act by removing the triple lock but this is brazenly saying we want to abandon our neutrality, even though, of course, the Government is not admitting the removal of the triple lock is jettisoning our neutrality. On top of that, as a European member state, we have a choice right now when there is a clear direction of travel away from the peace project origins of the founding of the European Union towards a project which has at its centre militarism, war, the arms industry and economies propped up by those. That is the direction of travel. There is no hiding that. Nobody is even trying to hide that in Brussels. We have a role as a European member state, and one of the few which are neutral, not to just go along with it and say, "Oh, that's where the money's going, we'd best follow that", but instead to say "No", push back against it and say that we do not stand for this and we will not stand for it. We must remind our European colleagues that we are a peace project. I hear from those in Cabinet time and again that the EU is the greatest peace project - well, they should act like it is and tell our European colleagues we will not do this. Do not just try to buy in because that is where the money is. We are against the use of public funds to subsidise the arms industry and we understand the Government's approach seeks to cash in, essentially, on European funds for companies engaging in military activities. The arms industry has always been profitable and the level of profitability has never been the measure by which Government should approve State supports to companies engaging in military activities and creating goods for military use. The reason we require Government approval is based on the understanding that the creation, with public funds, of weapons that may be used in a manner over which we have no control is wrong. We also believe shaping our industrial development around the arms and military sector risks creating sector lock-in and reliance on arms for economic and industrial development, which can have serious consequences for our economies, for policies across Europe, for diplomacy and for defence. Being one of 27 member states and one of the few neutral ones means being a constant reminder that this is a peace project, a Union founded in peace, not one which supports war and arms as a key economic indicator. We see this policy shift happening across the EU. What is not being spoken about when we talk about the billions for the defence sector is the cost. When we use Cohesion Funds, research funds and business support funds for military purposes, there is less money for the genuine social cohesion that the European project was born for. For important research and indigenous businesses which are not in the military sector, we must resist it and resist using it as a foundation for this gargantuan policy change. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-30