Tom Clonan: Defence Forces Must Not Police Protests

So look, colleagues, I think that this is an inflection point in our political discourse and in our policy. And I think we all need to recognize that. So I was in the lower chamber there during the no confidence debate and it was very heated and people are naturally very passionate in their views. But I think as a collective, we need really to pull together because there are voices out there, out there in front of Leinster House now who are trying to seize the narrative. So this isn't just about a fuel crisis, it's not just about a cost of living crisis, it's a political crisis of how we communicate. So I want to be as constructive as I can. What's the difference between morality and ethics? How do you reconcile two morally strongly held positions and reconcile them? That's the difference between morality and ethics. Ethics is the philosophical approach where we try to reach the middle ground. That did not happen last week until it was too late, okay? So we need to, as politicians, avoid polarity at all costs and in this chamber and in the lower chamber, work together to reach consensus and that is going to mean compromise. And there is a kind of a leadership style that has emerged. I've noticed it and I'm sure you also, my colleagues on the government side have noticed it and are probably equally as unhappy as I am. A kind of a remote, paternalistic, virgin on authoritarian approach to leadership. We have to be very, very careful about that because that disconnect, which is even felt in these chambers, if we lose the social contract with the people, then what that looks like is Capitol Hill and what that looks like is what's taking place out front of this house this evening. Now, I have a great fealty to Angardashie-O'Connor. My grandfather fought in the War of Independence and then was in the first intake of Angardashie-O'Connor, Joe Clonan. He told me that they had to walk out of Kevin Street, as it was then, Ladd Lane, which had gun ports. They had to walk out unarmed amongst the people. My father was a guard. He was involved in the front line during the H block riots, the hunger strike riots, the burning down of the British embassy. Not once, not once in the history of the state, never have the defense forces been called out to a civilian protest. And I saw misinformation and disinformation being circulated over the weekend in the national news media where they conflated aid to the civil power operations with aid to the civil authority operations, which is an intervention which takes place during industrial disputes. For example, bin disputes and bus disputes. The two operations are completely different, and I have been deployed on both. I've been on the front line and aid to the civil power operations where we were dealing with organized crime or paramilitaries. You do not equate the Irish people with paramilitaries or organized crime groups. You don't do it intentionally or unintentionally. I also have, I went to O'Connell Street on Friday, and I walked amongst the protesters. And what I saw there was, and there's been a lot of talk of critical infrastructure. I saw the critical infrastructure of this republic in those people. Decent, honest, hardworking people who are put to the pin of their collar, who did not want to be there, and are only there because they're acting in extremis. And their voices were not listened to. There was also another group of people there, a very small but vocal minority. And I did a little piece to camera on Friday, which went viral. And if you listen to it at the end, you'll hear them say to me, go back to your own fucking country. To me, I'm from Finglas. I'm glad to hear it's been elevated to the status of a state. But that is an ugly, divisive, toxic polity that is emerging, and is trying to exploit the hardship that our citizens, and we, everybody in this chamber is experiencing. And we, as politicians, we have to be really careful not to cede the ground, and to give that narrative over to these really reprehensible voices, some of whom are vocal outside. So I just want to say, look, Minister O'Callaghan, I have huge respect for Minister O'Callaghan. And I have no doubt that he acted in utmost good faith when he looked for the assistance of the defence forces. But it should never have happened. They were inappropriately tasked through the C70, which is aid to the civil power, which involves the use of force. Now, we obviously, during the Troubles, we had aid to the civil power operations. I was involved in myself, armed support operations of the Garda Síochána, which you don't deploy in that manner for a civilian protest. Like I said, we didn't do it during the H-block protests, the burning down of the British embassy, the Love Ulster parade, the Dublin riots. Margaret Thatcher didn't even deploy the army against the miners in the UK. It is a no-no across Europe. There is no other jurisdiction in the European Union that will deploy the military onto the streets when policing becomes difficult. The defence forces should have been deployed in the aftermath by the local authority to help remove whatever was left behind. They should never have been in the sightline of protesters. Never. And that's not a criticism of the defence forces. It's not a criticism of a Garda Síochána. Finally, I just want to say in the brief time, I made it really clear in my communication that once critical infrastructure brought us to crisis point, the protesters should have dispersed peacefully and without hindrance to a Garda Síochána. And I would like to pay tribute to the young men and women of a Garda Síochána who I think did a great job under a very, very difficult job under quite some considerable provocation from some of the minority that were at those protests. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.