Paul Murphy: Neutrality Is Under Threat from Militarisation
Paul Murphy argues that the Irish government is eroding neutrality by deepening ties with NATO and accelerating defence spending during Ireland's EU presidency. He cites participation in NATO-linked meetings, military training, attempted equipment transfers, and the EU white paper and Defence Readiness Roadmap as evidence of a shift toward militarisation.
Key claims on neutrality
Paul Murphy sets out examples he says contradict government assurances that neutrality is safe: attendance at the Ukraine Contact Defence Group, training for Ukrainian troops, attempts to offload armoured vehicles, and participation in the Joint Expeditionary Force under the National Maritime Security Strategy. He criticises repeated official reassurances - "don't worry, neutrality is not under threat" - as misleading.
EU priorities and defence planning
Murphy examines the Irish Presidency programme and the EU white paper on the future of European defence, highlighting explicit references to EU-NATO cooperation, a surge in defence spending, and new instruments such as the SAFE project and the Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030. He warns that fiscal rules will be relaxed for military investment even as other public needs remain underfunded.
Consequences for public spending and services
Murphy argues the drive to increase defence budgets will crowd out investment in housing, transport and climate action. He points to statistics on rising European defence budgets and quotes senior officials who argue higher defence spending means less spending on other priorities. The speech frames militarisation as a political choice with real costs for ordinary people.
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The government likes to tell us that they do not have our neutrality in their crosshairs. They tell us that they're planning to drop the triple lock so that a future government or this government could send troops outside of the framework of international law on NATO missions to invade countries in the Middle East or elsewhere, but don't worry, neutrality is not a threat. They tell us they want to triple our military expenditure, but don't worry, neutrality is not under threat. They participate in the Ukraine Contact Defence Group, described as a NATO alliance by the US Secretary of Defence. They've now attended 30 of these meetings, which take place either online or in NATO headquarters either in Brussels or in the air command in Germany. They engage in training Ukrainian troops involved in a war, a war against an imperialist invader. They remove landlines. No, no, they don't. You're misleading it all. For the record, the minister said that they remove landlines. They actually don't. They don't just train people to remove landlines. Actually, that was the propaganda that was put out at the time, but if you read into the detail, it's actually not what they said. You'll be able to go and check it later. You attempted to. It appeared that armoured vehicles were probably too rusty and perhaps would have presented a threat to the poor Ukrainian conscripts, but you attempted to offload armoured vehicles, which it appears were armed with grenade launchers or machine guns, and still tried to pass that off as being non-lethal military aid. But don't worry, neutrality is not under threat. You participate now as part of the National Maritime Security Strategy in the Joint Expeditionary Force, an alliance made up of 10 NATO members and led by Britain, but don't worry, again, neutrality is not under threat. If anybody believed this guff, well then they should go and pay some attention to what the government is openly saying are their priorities for the European presidency. Ireland is president of the European Council for the next six months, and they have three priorities. One is values, one is competitiveness, and what the third one is? The third one is security. So a neutral, supposedly neutral, state saying that our priority, one of our three priorities, is security. And what does that mean in detail? I'll quote, the Irish presidency will advance work on the measures set out in the white paper on the future of European defence and the Associated Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 and on defence procurement. So saying openly, you're going to advance the white paper on the future of European defence and the defence readiness roadmap. But what does the white paper for European defence say? Section 8, enhance security through partnerships. Quote, NATO remains the cornerstone of collective defence of its members in Europe. EU-NATO cooperation is an indispensable pillar for the development of the EU's security and defence dimension. The EU's unique tools of regulatory power and financial instruments help the 23 EU member states and NATO to achieve their capability targets. So explicitly, a government that says, we're never going to go near NATO, nothing like that, you're saying our priority is to uphold this indispensable pillar of EU-NATO cooperation. Section 7 looks for a surge in defence spending. A surge in defence spending is what is promised, it's what in reality is already underway. Via, one, a new dedicated financial instrument to support member states' defence investments. The SAFE project, where we're going to borrow money in order to invest money in the military. The coordinated activation of the National Escape Clause of the Stability and Growth Pact. So the fiscal rules, they're not going to apply to military expenditure. We've been deeper and deeper in a housing crisis that just isn't in Ireland, it's across Europe. They have never suspended the fiscal rules for the housing crisis. Fiscal rules are getting suspended for militarisation. Three, making existing EU instruments more flexible to allow greater defence investment. Four, contributions from the European Investment Bank. Five, mobilising private capital. Six, financial predictability. And if you read the Associated Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030, it's the same stuff. Quote, Europe has turned the corner on decades of underinvestment in defence. Member states increased defence budgets from £218 billion in 2021 to £343 billion in 2024. And again, this is all explicitly, positively referenced in the programme of the Irish Presidency. So a neutral state is saying, great, we're driving this further militarisation of Europe. We're driving spending more and more money on weapons within Europe. And we think that that is a good thing. And Mark Rutte, the NATO Chief, said that spending more on defence means spending less on other priorities. And that is the mantra of the political establishments right across Europe. You're not going to get investment in housing, you're not going to get investment in transport. Forget about action on climate, because we're going to spend more and more money on weapons that don't make ordinary people any safer, but make the armaments companies a lot richer.
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