Senator Gerard Craughwell - speech from 15 June 2022

I want to join with Senator O'Sullivan, well said, perfect timing. Deputy Leader, in an article by Sirica Pollock in the Irish Times on June 13th of this year, titled Five Ukrainian Soldiers with Significant Trauma-Related Injuries Airlifted to Dublin, the following statement was provided to the journalist by the Department of Foreign Affairs' spokesperson. He or she said, Ireland was not politically or morally neutral in the face of Russia's appalling attack against Ukraine. Ireland has a long-standing policy of military neutrality, meaning that we do not participate in military alliance or mutual defence arrangements, he told the Irish Times. However, the treatment of injured Ukrainian combatants in Ireland reflects the state's continuing commitment to work closely with our EU partners to provide humanitarian and other assistance to the people of Ukraine. In making this statement, the Department has stated a falsehood which is directly in intervention with their own stated position on foreign policy. Let me once again refer to Ireland's only white paper on foreign policy, published by the Department of Foreign Affairs, not in 1922 or between 1939 and 1945 during the Second World War, but in 1995. Perhaps they have forgotten it and perhaps it is time to remind them. They state, in the paper titled Challenges and Opportunities Abroad, Ireland's white paper on foreign policy, in the section on international security, chapter 4, paragraph 4.5, In the strict sense of international law and practice, neutrality and its intended rights and duties do not exist in peacetime. They only arise during war. Neutrality represents an attitude of impartiality adopted by the state towards the participants in a conflict and recognises as such by the belligerents. Such an attitude creates certain rights and duties between neutral states and the belligerents, which commence at the commencement of war and cease at the end of war. Has Ireland's position changed since the white paper was published? If so, who changed it? And what and where in the Oireachtas was that discussed? What is this nonsense about political and moral neutrality? Where does it come from? Where can I find either position defined in international law? The statement refers to military neutrality, stating that we do not participate in military alliances. Two points need to be made here. Neutrality and military non-alignment are polar opposites. So which are we? Neutral or non-aligned as a nation? If we are truly militarily non-aligned, why have we not joined the 120 non-aligned countries in the world? It is time for a national informed debate on Ireland's status. It is time for an honest debate. And, Cahir, look, I am calling on you, as somebody who has led out on many things, including the debate we had here yesterday, to bring to Sianna Dairn, which is the place, I believe, that this debate must start. I asked at the beginning of this Sianna period, back when we were elected in 2020, that we would have a debate on neutrality. Today, I am asking again, the citizens of this country deserve no less than an honest, clear, informed debate, in order that the national discussion on Ireland's future military status can commence. This nonsense that we are constantly hearing about political neutrality, moral neutrality, military aligned, military non-aligned. We had a poll run by the Irish Times about people's attitude to neutrality. The people of Ireland do not know what is required of the state to be truly neutral. They do not know what is required of the state to be truly militarily non-aligned. So, Cahir, look, I am asking you to work with the leader and to bring experts to this house. who will debate with members of this house what it truly means for Ireland to be neutral, what it truly means for Ireland to be militarily non-aligned. And let us inform the debate, before a citizens' assembly is put in place, of people talking about something that has not really been debated in this country since the foundation of the state. Thank you, Cahir.