Rose Conway-Walsh: Calls for Clarity on Triple Lock and Defence

First at the outset, as Chair of the Defence and National Security Committee, I do want to commend our Defence Forces, our Air Corps, our Navy and our Army, and our thoughts are particularly with those who are serving in Lebanon today as we speak and with their families. And just maybe to say on that, we have asked as a committee for a briefing on that from the Department, so we're hoping to get that briefing in the next week to obviously reassure us that everything possible is being done and they're being given all the resources and the help that they need in Lebanon. So just to talk maybe for a moment in terms of the Triple Lock and us having done the pre-ledge scrutiny on the Triple Lock within the committee, there were some things that were very clear to us, and I suppose the first thing that was very clear to us was that, and the question that kept arising for us was, and particularly in relation to the Taoiseach, in how in 2014 the Triple Lock was to the core of our neutrality, it was the core of our neutrality, and now suddenly it's not. And obviously that is of concern to us as a committee and it's a concern, I think, to the Irish people. As Donnacha said, and I think it's important to note, that the current rules for deployment of unlimited numbers of the Defence Force members is far and wide, firstly in terms of secondments to international organisations, to participating in training, to carrying out ceremonial duties, to participating in exchanges, to undertaking visits, to fact-finding missions and to undertaking humanitarian tasks in response to an actual or potential disasters or emergencies, because I think the impression sometimes can be given that our hands are really tied with the Triple Lock. In many instances they are not tied at all. We can participate in sporting events, we can do inspecting and valuating of stores, of equipment, of facilities, so there's a whole lot there that can be done and certainly that needs to be done. Now the government need to state as well what missions do they want to partake in that they cannot do with the Triple Lock. We have never had an answer to that and I think it has never been a more important time for us to be neutral and to be neutrally recognised, explicitly recognised within the EU as a neutral country. So that's probably all I'll say, other than to say that we're still waiting for the national security strategy. It's very, very important that we have that and I think to reiterate what Danica has said, there's consensus across the committee in terms of the resources and the investment that needs to be put into our defence forces. We have to address years, if not decades, of neglect of our defence forces and we're doing that and certainly as Chair of the Defence and National Security, that's a job I take very seriously. I would just mention finally in terms of our request for extension of remit of that committee to enable us to be able to do our national security element properly. We're very mindful that we have the EU Presidency coming up, there's a lot of concerns around different areas of that, but we need oversight, we need accountability and we need transparency and that's what we will continue to seek within the committee and that's certainly what I will continue to seek as Chair of that committee.