This week the Government announced its plans for Ireland's EU Presidency that begins on 1st July, and militarisation is central to the Government’s plans for the 6 months of its Presidency.
Earlier in the week the Cabinet approved legislation to end the Triple Lock and the legislation is expected to come before the Dáil before the summer recess in mid-July.
People Before Profit said the Government is planning a festival of propaganda against the Triple Lock during the EU Presidency, but the Government will be challenged by people power.
Deputy Paul Murphy said:
“The Government is planning to use the EU Presidency for a funeral of the Triple Lock and Irish neutrality. It has taken Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil many years to get to this point. We've gone from Micheál Martin saying in 2013 that the Triple Lock ‘is the core of our neutrality’, to him now digging the grave into which he wants to throw the Triple Lock in the coming months.
“Micheál Martin or Simon Harris have no interest in being active in the UN General Assembly as an ally of other post-colonial countries. They want to join with the EU and NATO big boys in their military interventions against weaker countries, and in being another snout in the arms industry trough. For this the Triple Lock must go, and under no circumstances do they want the views of the people to get in the way of that”.
Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett said:
“The Government is well aware they do not have popular support or a political mandate for what they are about to try and do. So they now intend to use the EU Presidency as a festival of propaganda to manufacture public support for the ending of the Triple Lock and neutrality, and for acceleration of the integration of Ireland into the EU’s militarisation project. This is particularly objectionable when the EU is up to its neck in complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“They won't allow a referendum on neutrality and the Triple Lock because they know they would lose. But we won't let it end there. What is done in the Dáil without a popular mandate will be challenged by people power in the streets. And it's in the streets and in communities that we will do everything we can in the months ahead to stop the Government’s betrayal of our neutrality.
“We are in discussions with many groups and organisations about protests during the EU Presidency against the attacks on our neutrality, the EU’s escalating drive to militarisation, and ongoing EU complicity with Israel’s genocidal crimes against Palestine.”