Lynn Boylan: Government Abandons Neutrality and Moral Leadership
Lynn Boylan responds to the Taoiseach's programme, criticising the Government's approach to neutrality, the EU presidency priorities, the environment, data protection and the partition of the island. She warns that values are being sidelined as the Government embraces militarisation and deregulation.
Main criticisms: Boylan argues the Government proclaims principles only when they cost nothing, and that Ireland's proud record on peace-building, disarmament and international law is absent from the programme. She accuses the Taoiseach of supporting a militarisation agenda and launching an attack on Irish neutrality during the EU presidency.
On Israel and occupation: Boylan challenges the Taoiseach's framing of Netanyahu's government, saying settlement expansion has been continuous and calling the reality a rogue state and an apartheid regime. She urges the presidency to deliver EU action to end Israel's illegal occupation.
Environment and big tech: While the programme pledges international environmental leadership, Boylan warns the embraced deregulation agenda hands billionaires greater freedom to harm the planet. She also raises concerns about weak enforcement of data protection where big tech is based, saying regulators remain shaped by the companies they should regulate.
Unity and democratic deficits: On the question of enlargement and the island's future, Boylan says there is little ambition to end partition. She highlights the democratic deficit for Irish citizens in the north and presses for concrete measures such as observer MEPs and civil society participation. She closes with a call for moral leadership rather than equivocation.
Main criticisms: Boylan argues the Government proclaims principles only when they cost nothing, and that Ireland's proud record on peace-building, disarmament and international law is absent from the programme. She accuses the Taoiseach of supporting a militarisation agenda and launching an attack on Irish neutrality during the EU presidency.
On Israel and occupation: Boylan challenges the Taoiseach's framing of Netanyahu's government, saying settlement expansion has been continuous and calling the reality a rogue state and an apartheid regime. She urges the presidency to deliver EU action to end Israel's illegal occupation.
Environment and big tech: While the programme pledges international environmental leadership, Boylan warns the embraced deregulation agenda hands billionaires greater freedom to harm the planet. She also raises concerns about weak enforcement of data protection where big tech is based, saying regulators remain shaped by the companies they should regulate.
Unity and democratic deficits: On the question of enlargement and the island's future, Boylan says there is little ambition to end partition. She highlights the democratic deficit for Irish citizens in the north and presses for concrete measures such as observer MEPs and civil society participation. She closes with a call for moral leadership rather than equivocation.
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Transcript
A Uachtarán a thíosach, is deas i uachtaránach na hÉireann ar an ceorlea chun bheithne go ar son na séachána, go ar son cearta d'éine agus an dlaoí idair ná siúnta, am chun or múin leuchane ar chur chun cín. Unfortunately, though, the Irish Government's approach continues to be, we will be principled but only when it costs us nothing. Ireland is a country with a proud record on peace-building, disarmament and international law. That legacy is entirely missing from the Government's programme. Instead, Taoiseach, we see you embracing the militarisation agenda against the wishes of the Irish people and launching a full-scale attack on our neutrality. Ireland should use its presidency to deliver EU action to end Israel's illegal occupation of Israel and its apartheid regime. In your speech, you spoke of Netanyahu's government as if it is a rogue government when the reality is that Israel has expanded its settlements under every single Israeli government. It is a rogue state. And as heatwaves burn, your programme talks of leading the EU at international environmental negotiations. But you embrace the deregulation agenda, giving billionaires more freedom to destroy our planet. I also have concerns that the states that host so much of big tech can truly lead on data protection. Enforcement remains slow, weak and shaped by the companies that it is meant to regulate. And while discussion on enlargement is welcome, where is the ambition to end partition of our island? Taoiseach, you talk of a shared island, but Irish citizens in the north don't share the benefits of the EU. Concrete measures like observer MEPs and participation in civil society platforms would help to address the democratic deficit. Across our island, the conversation for unity is gaining momentum, yet the Taoiseach is a spectator. But on one thing we can agree, Taoiseach, without values, nothing matters. That's why we cannot allow Ursula von der Leyen to run roughshod over our values and act beyond her mandate. Now is the time for moral leadership, not equivocation.