Gerard P. Craughwell: Urgent call for national security strategy
Gerard P. Craughwell warns of rising fuel prices and mounting industrial unrest, urging immediate publication of a national security strategy and clearer rules on protest. Speaking in the Dáil, he pressed the government to prepare for an energy shock and to debate future problems with the Minister for Finance.
Gerard P. Craughwell called for the long-promised national security strategy to be published without further delay, criticizing repeated promises that it is always "a couple of days away." He said the strategy is needed urgently to prepare for potential energy shocks and wider security consequences.
Craughwell compared recent blockades at home to international tensions in the Straits of Hormuz and warned that fuel prices are likely to spiral in the coming weeks and months. He highlighted the prospect of intense industrial unrest - naming teachers, the IMO and Garda representative bodies - and asked for a debate with the Minister for Finance on the looming energy crisis.
He urged the State to publish a clear definition of acceptable protest, arguing that actions which shut down streets or fuel depots cross the line into illegality. Craughwell criticised the government's inaction during recent protests, saying the Dáil should have been recalled and officials should have engaged with people on the ground earlier.
Demand for a national security strategy
Gerard P. Craughwell called for the long-promised national security strategy to be published without further delay, criticizing repeated promises that it is always "a couple of days away." He said the strategy is needed urgently to prepare for potential energy shocks and wider security consequences.
Preparing for energy and industrial disruption
Craughwell compared recent blockades at home to international tensions in the Straits of Hormuz and warned that fuel prices are likely to spiral in the coming weeks and months. He highlighted the prospect of intense industrial unrest - naming teachers, the IMO and Garda representative bodies - and asked for a debate with the Minister for Finance on the looming energy crisis.
Clarifying lawful protest and government response
He urged the State to publish a clear definition of acceptable protest, arguing that actions which shut down streets or fuel depots cross the line into illegality. Craughwell criticised the government's inaction during recent protests, saying the Dáil should have been recalled and officials should have engaged with people on the ground earlier.
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Transcript
Go raibh maith agat, Cathaoirleach. Thank you very much. Yesterday I spoke about the protests and the blockades that occurred over the last couple of weeks. It looks very much like the block or the lockdown of the Straits of Hormuz by the United States now. It looks like we have both the Iranians and the United States locking down Hormuz. We may as well prepare today. Fuel prices are going to spiral in the coming weeks and months. We cannot allow a situation again to develop whereby we have local Gardaí being pitted against their fellow citizens, local members of the defence forces being called out, which I think was erroneous in the first instance. But what we really need to do now is we need to prepare. We have been asking for the security strategy, the national security strategy, for years. And it's always a couple of days away. It'll be out next week. It's a bit like Donald Trump's health contract to Obamacare in the United States. We'll have it next week or the week after or maybe on the last paragraph. It's simply not good enough. So we need the national strategy. We need it urgently. That's the first thing we need. Secondly, we are about to head into a period of extreme industrial unrest. We've just had the teachers' conferences. They're over. And we know that there is demands for pay. There's demands for better facilities in schools, etc. IMO at the weekend. The IMO are coming soon. The Garda representative body are meeting this week. We are heading into a time of industrial unrest. And let's not do what we did with respect to the protests on fuel. We allowed, when I say we, the government, but I think all of us that sit in this house, sat on our hands while this was going on. We were in recess. We should have recalled the Dáil. We should have taken steps in the first days. We should have met people on the ground and we should have engaged with them. There's only a limited amount of tax revenue that we have coming into this country. We're not going to be able to buy our way out of this as the situation escalates. And escalate it will over the coming months. Unless, by some miracle or other, Donald Trump and the Iranians decide that, sorry, we never meant to go to war. And let's let the ships move to Hormuz again. So can we maybe have the Minister for Finance in here and have a debate on the future problems associated with energy crisis? We also need to publish today, I would say, what is a protest? What is acceptable in a protest? It is guaranteed under the Constitution that you can protest. But it is limited and it has restrictions over it. And a protest that impacts the general population is simply not a protest. It is an illegal act. Locking O'Connell Street down that nothing could move. Locking down fuel depots that nothing could move is an act of illegality. The people that were there thought they were behaving legally. Because there was nobody giving them alternative information. They were taking their information from a hard right group. And let's be honest about it. These people didn't care. We saw the social media, stuff coming in from the United Kingdom. So let's publish what is a reasonable protest. I'll leave it at that.