Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 23 Nov 2022

Thank you very much, Laskar Heerlich, speaking as a fellow veteran of the Defence Forces. Minister, you're welcome to the House. I am confused sitting here this evening because I've heard members of this House talking about neutrality and military non-alignment all in the same breath. But these are polar opposites. Polar opposites. And I think we have a huge problem when we start talking about neutrality. So let's take a definition of neutrality from your own Foreign Affairs Department. In their paper, Challenges and Opportunity Abroad, Ireland's White Paper on Foreign Policy 1995, International Security, Chapter 4, Paragraph 4.5, defines neutrality. In the strict sense of international law and practice, neutrality and its intended rights and duties do not exist in peacetime. So let's get that into our heads. Neutrality does not exist in peacetime. They arise only during a state of war. Neutrality represents an attitude of impartiality adopted by a state towards the participants in a conflict and recognising as such by the belligerence. Such an attitude creates rights and duties between the neutral state and the belligerence, which commence at the outbreak of war and end at the cessation. The programme for government, published in 2020, states that the Irish people take great pride in the permanent defence forces and the men and women who serve the country with pride and distinction. The public might, but few governments have ever rewarded the loyalty freely given by those excellent men and women who serve in our defence forces. If we are a truly neutral state, we have certain obligations. Minister, please explain to the public how the government will ensure there is respect for our so-called neutrality. Can we meet the most basic requirement to underpin our so-called sovereignty? For example, if necessary, could we use force to repel any violation of our territory? Minister, you have held the portfolio for defence over five of the past ten years. You have presided now over the lowest headcount in 50 years in the permanent defence forces. Can I ask you, Minister, does this fact that so many of our skilled personnel are walking out in droves, does it keep you awake at night? We are the only country in the EU without a full-time minister. And, by the way, that's not your fault and it's not the Cabinet's fault, but I do think our ministers are far, far overburdened in the number of portfolios they carry. It seems to me that the Commission of Defence has done little to halt the exorcism from the Defence Forces. The years of investment in our naval service have been lost as ships are decommissioned simply because we do not have crews. Our Air Corps is 50% deficient on technicians, 26% below establishment. Our young pilots are being sent to the four corners of the world to be trained. Clearly, we are way, way, way beyond defending anything. We have outsourced Search and Rescue, the operation at enormous cost to the taxpayer. I wonder what the Air Corps could have achieved had it been tasked with the SAR. Can you, Minister, or can I ask you, Minister, what real support did you give to the Air Corps when its bid was its 415-page submission was critiqued by a three-page piece of rubbish without any empirical evidence. I sent you a copy of that when I got it on FOI. I cannot believe that the government you sit in has actually kicked out a proposal by the Air Corps on a piece of rubbish that was written with nothing to support it. The Army is suffering. Our ordnance people are overworked completely. Hundreds of NCOs vacancies. Getting a decision recently, which I commend you for, Minister, because you fought hard for it, to retain sergeants, took months. Absolute months. The government keeps lumping the Defence Forces into the public service when it comes to pay and condition. Like it are lumped, jobs do differ greatly across the public service. None can be truly benchmarked against the Defence Forces. Defence Force personnel have no protections in the Workplace Relations Commission. They have no working time directive, as we speak at the moment. They are not permitted to overtime. They cannot take industrial action for better working conditions. They must pass medical and fitness and drugs tests on a regular basis. Moreover, they are subject to archaic and obscure military law processes and are forced to retire early. Even when there is an adjudication, as in the case of the Army Ranger Wing, now I think 30 years old, the government simply chooses to ignore it. The income that those men are entitled to. The ones who put themselves on the line. If we scratch the surface of things in the Defence Forces, they are much worse. The numbers are artificially inflated by the inclusion of recruits, privates, cadets, second lieutenants and apprentices. Many of the apprentices are looking for a way out already. Indeed, we recently saw an entire class bought out by a private company. Many of the early post-2013 entrants into the Defence Forces are currently searching every opportunity to get out to good jobs. Minister, you and others from the Government proclaimed at the start of the Russian-Ukrainian War that Ireland was not neutral in this conflict. Can I ask you what authority did you have to make that statement? You and the Taoiseach have made this statement that we are not neutral in the case of the Ukrainian War. What authority! It never came before the House of the Oireachtas. Nobody in this House had a say. By the way, I am fully supportive of us not being neutral in the Ukrainian War. But it should have come to this House. It should have. You are asking me to shut up. I am not asking you to shut up. I am just telling you your time is up. It is the same thing though. If you could resume your seat please. Thank you. Let me finish on this. I support the abolition of the Tribble Lock. Because the United Nations Security Council is an organisation that is not fit for purpose. It is a waste of time. Totally and utterly toothless. Minister, I regret I will not be here to hear your reply because I have got to leave the House. But I will read it. I want to thank you. Thank you. Let's go here. Thank you. Thank you.