Taoiseach Micheál Martin has insisted Ireland has “no intention of joining NATO”, despite former president Michael D Higgins warning that Ireland risks “sliding” into losing its neutrality if the Triple Lock is removed.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner on Saturday, after last week’s initial Dail vote to remove the Triple Lock, Mr Higgins said the Government was not being honest about what may happen and that Ireland could slide into international military alliances.
However, responding to that view at the launch of the Government’s rural Ireland plan 2026-2031, the Taoiseach said the situation has been misrepresented.
Asked about former president Higgins’ comments, the Taoiseach asked “what military alliance?”, before insisting when NATO was referenced that Ireland “has no intention of joining NATO”.
Mr Martin said he is asked every few years about the issue, and that in his view Ireland is “militarily neutral”, arguing it was incorrect to suggest the EU is “war mongering” – a label he said some Opposition parties have made both now and in previous decades.
The Taoiseach said that “for the first time in 10 years” and arguably in a generation “the UN Security Council is dysfunctional”.
As such, he said people should “call a spade a spade” and accept “the world has changed quite dramatically”, including the UN Security Council element of the Triple Lock, which means that any permanent member – China, France, Russia, the UK and US – could veto Ireland’s contribution to international missions.
Former president Michael D Higgins said Ireland could slide into international military alliances
The Taoiseach also said that the view from some members of the Dáil that the UN Security Council element of the Triple Lock could be replaced by a UN General Assembly vote element instead was “not realistic at all”.
He said in his view the UN General Assembly is “a huge body” and that “anyone who knows anything about the UN” would say it is not a feasible alternative as it would take years to agree to deployments.
Asked by a newspaper reporter if former president Higgins’ remarks were “intellectually lazy”, the Taoiseach paused before responding: “I didn’t use that phrase at all.”
Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne had earlier accused Sinn Féin of having “brought Dáil debate to a new low” over its “misinformation” on a bill to reform the Triple Lock system.
It comes after the Dáil voted by a narrow margin to reform the system around the deployment of peacekeeping troops.
Some 79 TDs voted for the bill to end the requirement for UN approval while 71 voted against in legislation that the Government aims to have enacted by the end of the year.
Watch: Pearse Doherty says Govt ‘dismantling the neutrality safeguards’
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said the “Government does not have a mandate to do what they’re doing”.
“They’re dismantling the neutrality safeguards that exist,” he added.
Mr Doherty said that at the same time Minister for Defence Helen McEntee “and her Cabinet colleagues are arguing for the deployment of Irish troops to European missions that simply could involve us in a civil war in the likes of Lebanon”.
Sinn Féin also claimed that changing the Triple Lock without a referendum would be a “profound betrayal” by the Government.
“Scrapping the Triple Lock opens the door to Ireland being dragged into EU military structures, into dangerous alliances and further alignment with Nato,” the party’s president Mary Lou McDonald said in the Dáil last week.
Mr Byrne said the constitution commits Ireland to peace and friendly cooperation among nations.
He added that nothing in EU law or any decision of the EU can have any impact on Irish neutrality, and that those saying otherwise in the Dáil are misinformed.
“One Sinn Féin TD spoke of Irish soldiers becoming combat participants. Now, she had plenty of time to read the legislation to know that that’s not in the legislation,” he said.
He said: “It’s a complete misreading of the legislation. The idea that a TD can get up in Dáil Éireann and say that Irish soldiers will be turned into conflict participants, I thought was a new low.
“It brought Dáil debate to a new low. I think this whole issue of the Triple Lock has been characterised by misinformation.
“The lack of understanding in this entire debate is quite shocking.”
“I absolutely guarantee you after this legislation passes, we will never hear another word about it again either because we’ll still be a neutral country.
“We remain a neutral country and this legislation will not change this, despite all of the shouting and fighting and arguing and misinformation in Dáil.”
Free Belarus ‘essential for lasting peace and security in Europe’ – Tsikhanouskaya
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Minister Thomas Byrne at the reland-Belarus conference
Mr Byrne was speaking ahead of an Ireland-Belarus conference with head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya ran for president of Belarus in 2020 against President Alexander Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994.
Although official figures said Mr Lukashenko won by a landslide, Ms Tsikhanouskaya claimed victory, leading to hundreds of thousands of people in Belarus protesting to demand the end of Mr Lukashenko’s reign.
There have been allegations of widespread vote rigging and Belarus is considered the “last dictatorship in Europe” by the European Parliament.
The conference comes as part of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The council has previously imposed sanctions on Belarus’ government officials.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya called for more sanctions and for the democratic element of her country to forge closer bonds with Europe.
She said: “Our message to all the people is clear: free, independent and democratic Belarus is essential for lasting peace and security in Europe, and this starts with the people of Belarus.
“I believe that dictators understand only the language of power and sanctions are a very efficient and strong instrument to make regimes and dictators surrender.”
She added that “it’s crucial that Ukraine wins this war”.
“If the democratic world will allow Ukraine to lose, it will affect not only Belarus, Ukraine, but also the entire Europe,” she said.
“Belarus has to return to its European family of nations, we want to become a European country, it’s not only about human rights, it’s about security.
“Without free and democratic Belarus, there will be no peace in the region because Lukashenko, who is serving Russia’s interests, will provoke, will blackmail, and threaten European borders as well.”
Ms Tikhanovskaya was one of the so-called ‘Chernobyl children’ who came to Ireland to be hosted by families as a reprieve after their health was affected by the radioactive fallout of the 1986 nuclear disaster in neighbouring Ukraine.
She said that having come repeatedly for summers in Ireland in the 1990s, Ireland and Belarus have a shared fight for national identity.
“In your history, your culture, your language was subjugated by England. The same Belarus is going through now because Russia is crucifying Belarus,” she said.
She added: “They want to erase our history. They want to ruin our connection with Europe and to subjugate, to make Belarus Russian.
“Lukashenko is absolutely a pro-Russian person and he himself wants to ruin everything Belarusian.
“This is what the Irish nation went through. I see your attempts to revive the language and so it’s so inspirational for me.”
Additional reporting: PA