It has been nearly two weeks since the Tánaiste was given the go-ahead to bring legislation before the Dáil to get rid of the triple lock in the context of our neutrality, and we have not seen that legislation. He will not answer questions directly on it. I have done my best to extract from him very important information for the Irish public as to why he is proposing it and where he intends troops should go if he removes the triple lock that maintains our neutrality. We need to discuss it. We cannot be left in a po…

Will it be after or before the election?

Israel is moving into the next stage of its murderous onslaught in Rafah. There are no words to describe the horrendous outcome we may see where 1.5 million Palestinian people are under bombardment in a small area of land. In the midst of this horrendous scene, it is heartening and uplifting to see students at Trinity College Dublin taking action to insist on divestment, sanctions and an end to co-operation with this genocidal state. The students are doing a great job in working with the authorities in Trinity to f…

But no sanctions. Is the Government insisting on there being no sanctions?

I agree with the points made by the previous speaker on the Common Fisheries Policy. It has not just decimated fisher communities, it has also created an ecological disaster. It is totally unsustainable. Having looked at the Amárach Research poll carried out North and South, it is quite remarkable how favourably Irish people look upon the EU. The polling results are quite positive for the EU. This is despite the major bank bail-out of €67 billion imposed on the Irish people after the banking crash of 2008. This cau…

Gabh mo leithscéal, tá tinneas sa scornach agam agus tá mo ghuth lag. I will read from Fianna Fáil's manifesto in 2020 to the electorate in order to sit where they are sitting now. All of its members signed up to this. Ireland will, "Fully maintain neutrality and the Triple Lock ... Fianna Fáil reaffirms its commitment to the retention of the triple lock of UN mandate or authorisation, Government and Dáil approval, prior to committing Defence Forces personnel on overseas service". It concludes: "We will fully maint…

I did not mention "conscription"-----

I asked where the Tánaiste would want to send them. Where does the Government want to send them after they lift the triple lock?

Deputy Murphy is correct. It does not make any sense. It is totally illogical to say that we will operate within the UN Charter and, at the same time, we want to break free of the UN Security Council. They are part and parcel of the same package. The Tánaiste has gone back to when he was aged 12 and how he remembers the campaign and how we threatened that there was going to be troops on the street and conscription. I am probably a bit older than the Tánaiste but I certainly would not have been talking about conscri…

I would describe it as a colonial power.

It has a colony called "Israel".

The Tánaiste does not answer the questions.

The Tánaiste is wrong about that. He doesn't answer the questions.

No, we did not. The Tánaiste has not answered the question-----

Where does the Tánaiste want to send troops?

I have caught the Tánaiste contradicting himself so many times. He will not answer the questions.

Do not give me that.

So the Tánaiste acknowledges that there are going to be more war situations but he wants to be free to send troops to those wars.

Solidarity to the Minister for the threats and the disturbance she and her family have suffered this week. I also express my solidarity to Deputy Paul Murphy, who also this week received death threats from the same sources. I have read over the motion from the Rural Independent Group. It consists of nearly three pages about the migration pact and there is not a single mention of the causes of the movement of people or the reasons they move. Somebody recently described the movement of people across the planet at the…

The programme for Government explicitly commits this Government to fully maintaining neutrality and the triple lock. In 2013, Deputy Micheál Martin, the current Tánaiste who wants a Bill brought before the Dáil to get rid of the triple lock, argued that the triple lock is at the core of our neutrality and he refused to accept the argument that it gives a veto to Russia over our peacekeeping activities. The Taoiseach will remember the triple lock was brought in as an amendment to the Nice treaty to get people to vot…