Bríd Smith attacks move to remove triple lock, defends neutrality

I do not have Aontuánaiste here. The Aontuánaiste will be here very shortly and will be giving the opening response on behalf of the Government, but in the meantime, I will be sitting through the front of me. You will be listening and you will tell him what I say. I am going to talk to you as if you are him, okay? That is fine. I will open your eyes to the position of Aontuánaiste for the next few minutes. Yes, the position of Aontuánaiste for five minutes. Deputy Smith, I just have to ask you for humanity to move the motion. Yes, I move the motion. Minister, there is a dark open secret at the heart of the political establishment in this country. You are embarrassed by the very idea of Irish neutrality, because when you trot off to Washington every Patrick's Day to give the shamrock to the US President, you are dreading the question, why are you not doing more to support the American project and American freedom? So, you have a problem. The vast majority of Irish people want to keep neutrality, so you have to manoeuvre and try to get around this sentiment. Your latest move is to try to remove the triple lock so that you are free to send Irish troops. Not your sons and daughters, but Irish troops to send wars at the beck and call of the US and the European Union. You have tried to prepare for this move. You have even set up a commission chaired by a Dame of the British Empire, but it has backfired on you. You only talk about military neutrality. You insist on inserting the word military before the word neutrality, and there is a reason for this. You want to ignore how the Irish people think of neutrality, and you want to de-gut it of its real meaning. For the majority of Irish people, neutrality arises from our experience of colonialism. It is linked to an anti-colonial sentiment, and that is why we instinctively know what side we are on in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. We do not want to support any empire. We know that behind the sweet talk of defending small nations lies a brutal arrogance. Don't tell me we have left the world of empires because history has left it behind. There are still some colonies left, Palestine of course being one of them. There is a hierarchy in this world based on military and economic power. That hierarchy is called imperialism. The US administration does not come to Dublin bearing gifts. We go to Washington to show our loyalty and support. It makes us laugh when today you claim that you belong to the Western Empire because it talks of freedom and democracy. Where is the freedom and democracy for the Palestinians? Where are the women's rights in Saudi Arabia that your patron, the US, describes as its ally in the Middle East? Do you really think that by simply recognising the state of Palestine as you have done yesterday that you have done your duty in the face of genocide? Do you not know that 140 countries have taken this step long before you and that even this step has been forced on you by the tens of thousands who marched week after week after week? The plain reality is that the US empire does not stand for freedom and democracy. If it did, it would not be supplying Israel with the bombs to murder and burn Palestinian children. The Dáil recognises Palestine, but then why are we all using Hewlett Packard machines in our offices? This is a company that supplies infrastructure that is vital for Israel's occupation and we say boycott them. And then there is AXA. No state agency should have a contract with a company that invests in Israeli banks and mining companies in the West Bank. We say boycott them. And then why is the Irish government, and I asked this yesterday, fast tracking visas for a hundred Israeli engineers to fly in here to work for Intel? And meantime, Palestinians who are fleeing genocide are left to sleep in tents on the banks of the canal. Why is the Irish state supporting this? Intel is a huge supporter of the Israeli state. It has built its Kiryat Gat plant on the site of two erased Palestinian villages. And just weeks after Israel intensified its genocide against the Palestinians, Intel announced its largest ever investment in Israel, $22.6 billion. I say boycott them. Why did the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment grant 32 licences to sell dual use goods worth $70.4 million into Israel under the Control of Exports Act 2008? Why won't you name these companies? We do need to back up the recognition of Palestine with real sanctions. And don't just tell the EU leaders that they are discussing, tell us that EU leaders are discussing sanctions. That means nothing. We are now seven months into the Israeli horrific conflict and the EU leaders have done nothing. The plain reality is that when you want to remove the triple lock because you want to move from a sideline substitute to the US imperialism to a full player. That is what you want. And you want to send Irish troops abroad to fight wars on their behalf and on behalf of the European Union. But despite the repeated requests from us, you have refused to say exactly where you want to send more than 12 Irish troops. You have asked your civil servants to come up with some obscure examples of where the triple lock has stopped you sending Irish troops. But come on, you need to have the courage of your convictions and tell us where you want to send the sons and daughters of working class people to fight for wars for the benefit of Western imperialism. If you won't give us a referendum to testify that Irish people still want to keep their neutrality, which is the least you can do, you know as well as me that the chair of NATO committee has said that we are preparing for war. You know that the Polish Prime Minister has already said we are in a pre-war situation. And the Irish Times, even in their own snooty way, recently declared that Ireland is at war, but we are sticking our heads in the sand. So come on, tell us where you want to send Irish troops. For our part, we are absolutely clear. We oppose both imperialist powers that seek to divide the world into their respective spheres of influence. I am openly opposed to the US Empire, equally opposed to the Russian-Chinese rivals. I have been on many protests outside the US Embassy. My party was the first to organise protests outside the Russian Embassy over the brutal invasion of Ukraine. And while I detest both imperialist powers, I have no time for the double standards of this government. It took you seven months before you dared to raise the Palestinian flag at this stall. You raised the Ukrainian flag immediately when it was invaded and is still flying there. Ukraine is right to oppose the Russian invasion, but it is not the only country fighting imperialism. Why are you not denouncing the EU for not banning arms sales to Israel when they sanctioned Russia immediately the invasion happened? Why are Fine Gael members of your coalition promising to vote for Ursula von der Leyen even though she has most brazenly backed Israel to the hilt? Your other way of getting around neutrality is to erode it bit by bit by bit. And you have let US troops use Shannon Airport as a transit point and pretend this is just an economic arrangement. And in reality it is a deliberate show of loyalty to the US Empire. And now you want to send Irish troops to train the Ukrainian soldiers, you send helmets to its army and you still pretend that you are militarily neutral. We are sick of your hypocrisy and I make one call, one call from this style today and the same call is being made in the Shannon, to stop US troops using Shannon Airport. Genocide Joe is totally complicit in the murder of Palestinians. And we want to see a left government that really changes us. And I say to my colleagues in Sinn Féin, we know that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will keep US troops in Shannon for as long as they can. So let's work together to evict Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. And this is a commitment we want to make before this any general election. US troops out of Shannon at a very minimum.