The Government announced this morning that the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2026 to end the Triple Lock will be debated and voted on in the Dáil on Wednesday.
The debate on Wednesday will be limited to just 3 and a half hours. If the Bill passes Second Stage vote on Wednesday evening it will then go on to committee stage.
People Before Profit condemned the Government’s latest undemocratic manoeuvre and repeated its call for a referendum to let the people decide on the future of neutrality and the triple lock.
Richard Boyd Barrett TD said:
“News that the Government will limit the debate on their legislation to end the Triple Lock confirms that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael remain determined to dismantle our neutrality and align us ever more closely to the project of European militarisation and to NATO.
“At an Oireachtas Business Committee meeting this morning I opposed the ‘guillotine’ to limit Wednesday’s debate, but the Government would not agree to give additional time for an adequate debate on this defining issue.
“Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have been steadily undermining our neutrality for decades. If they are successful in ending the Triple Lock, it will be another nail in the coffin of Ireland’s neutrality.
“In response, we will redouble our efforts to oppose the attacks on our neutrality, the EU’s escalating drive to militarisation, and ongoing EU complicity with Israel’s genocidal crimes against Palestine.”
Paul Murphy TD said:
“The Government has no mandate to end the triple lock. On the contrary, Catherine Connolly made opposition to militarisation and defence of the triple lock central to her presidential election campaign, a position that was key to her emphatic win.
“The real context to the efforts to end the Triple Lock is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are determined to become full participants in Western imperialism’s military act, intervening in weaker countries and profiting from the military-industrial complex, just like the rest of the EU and NATO states.
“The Government should stop lying to people about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Let the people decide, through a referendum, on the future of our neutrality and the triple lock.”