Paul Murphy warns EU-Canada defence deal risks NATO drift

In June, Ursula von der Leyen agreed a new security and defence partnership between the EU and Canada, a member of NATO. This will enable Canada to engage in joint weapons procurement with European countries, including Ireland, those that have signed up to re-arm Europe and the so-called safe instrument. Von der Leyen and Canada announced that, quote, NATO remains the cornerstone of their collective defence. Our aim will be to help deliver on our capability targets, including through our defence industries, more quickly and economically and with enhanced interoperability in ways that deliver mutual benefit and reinforce the European contribution to NATO. Taoiseach, would you agree that this new partnership between Ireland and Canada is part of what our President Michael D Higgins describes as a dangerous drift towards NATO that puts us behind the shadows of previous empires within the European Union? That flies in the face of the vast majority of people in this country who want to retain neutrality and who follow James Connolly's line of neither King nor Kaiser. Today that is neither Washington, nor Brussels, nor Beijing, nor Moscow, nor Moscow, nor Tehran, nor London, against all of these imperialisms consistently. That was Connolly's position. The Investor Court was dealt with through the European Court judgment and will be dealt with in terms of the legislation. All trade agreements have to be mediating facility and mechanism. And I think someone else said, yeah, it was a Deputy, Deputy Murphy, some of these are legitimate concerns, Deputy O'Rourke, sorry, that these were legitimate concerns, fossil fuels and so on. Not one of you mentioned, as Deputy and Michael Burn mentioned, there are 15,000 people in Ireland employed by Canadian companies. Does that matter to you? It does not matter to any of you. I just find this almost economic illiteracy, that exports do not matter. We do not believe in free trade. Order, please. Quiet, please. Because not one of you, not one of you could say we will vote for CETA or we will endorse CETA. Yes, you are against it. Yes, you are against something whereby trade from Ireland has gone up from 936 million in 2016 to 4.1 billion in 2024. Well, how could you be against that? You are supposed to be in favour, some of the opposition purport to be in favour of workers. You could not care less about workers, Deputy Murphy Off-Trudy Chair. You could not care less about Irish workers, because Irish workers benefit from those levels of exports. Indigenous companies, people working in multinationals, you just could not care less. You do not care about anything to do with the Western Hemisphere. And that is your position. This is a very fundamental point that has been raised. Time and time again. We are against this. We are against that. Because you do not believe in an enterprise economy. You do not believe in free trade really. And you do not believe really in workers' opportunities to develop and grow within their employments in the model that we have here. And I think it is a very serious issue in terms of this consistency over eight or nine years. And it is provisionally in operation, Deputy Murphy, but it is not legislated for. We have to ratify it. And we should actually, given the fact that we are a small, open economy, whose workers depend on trade, because we manufacture so many goods that are meant for export because we cannot consume them in a small island like Ireland. What are you at? What is the opposition at in terms of its economic policies and its trade policies? And particularly with tariffs coming from the US, of course we should embrace a Canadian European Union trade agreement and economic partnership. And Ireland should have a very strong and continue, and we do have a strong economic partnership. And we should not apologise for it. And Canada is not going to be perfect. We are not perfect. And they will have aspects to their policy that they have developed in terms of over the years that we may not agree with. But in the overall, in the overall it has been a benign, friendly country. Huge Irish roots there, Irish heritage there. And I think there is a disconnect in this house to what puts bread and butter on the tables of Irish people and your hang-ups about investor courts, about this, that and the other. It is a completely disproportionate, illogical approach that the opposition, all of you take, that not one of you, Labour, aim to, no one could say here today we will support CETA legislation. I find it extraordinary, in terms of your commitment and so forth, and in terms of the other issues that were raised, Deputy Nisha Karool, the strategic partnership we will embrace. And in terms of, you know, we have our position of military neutrality. I don't know that Deputy Murphy, Deputy Copperger suggested that our relationship with Canada was about militarisation or armaments and so on like that. It most simply is not. But the EU, other European member states are entitled to have their positions on defence. Sorry, we are. Sorry, we are. Yes. Yes. But we are not part of NATO, Deputy. No. We are not part of NATO. And, I mean, if you talk to people from Lithuania and Latvia, they have very legitimate existential concerns about themselves, given their long, long history with Russia, and the manner in which Russia treated them, and time and time again invaded, violated their integrity. If you were living in Lithuania, you might have a different perspective to the one you have now. Thanks. We are now moving to questions 18 to 13. ouve you in�all of nakara. Now, what do you think? Which is the want you know some of the things that you think? Right. We must all come. Wait. I am suppose to be talking, feel. And you think our patience is really important. But I think our patience will have to be with you know people need of hope and understand the strength in comes against. People need a temper, friend, because a teach isードju, and youthful, and that is, that's