Ireland’s presidency of EU Council begins tomorrow. This will be marked by a ceremony at Dublin Castle tomorrow afternoon.
Richard Boyd Barrett says the government is using the presidency as a “festival of propaganda” to promote the EU’s militarisation agenda and to justify ending Ireland’s Triple Lock.
Deputy Boyd Barrett will join antiwar, pro-neutrality, pro-peace, and Palestine solidarity groups at 1pm tomorrow, Wednesday, outside Dublin Castle to call for A Peoples’ Europe and to say no to genocide and war.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said;
“Tomorrow marks the beginning of Ireland's six-month presidency of the EU council. The government should be using the presidency to promote the development of a just and equal peoples’ Europe and to defend Ireland’s tradition of neutrality. But on the contrary, it's clear that the Taoiseach and the government is using the presidency as a festival of pro-militarisation propaganda.
“The government is supporting the agenda of Ursula Von Der Leyen and the European Union to ramp up the militarisation of the EU. The EU’s ReArm Europe report, published last year, calls for military spending in the EU to be almost doubled to €800 billion a year. That's money that could be spent on housing, on health services, on education, and on measures to relieve cost of living pressures. But instead, those vast sums will be spent on military equipment, and the Irish Government doesn’t have a word to say in opposition to this.
“The Taoiseach talks of promoting EU values, but all this is happening while the EU is annually exporting about €800 million worth of arms and military equipment to Israel, and is therefore deeply complicit in the genocide that Israel is committing against the people of Gaza.
“In addition to supporting the EU’s militarisation agenda, the government is cynically using the Presidency to manufacture consent for the government’s stated intention of abolishing the triple lock later this year.
“Being active in the UN General Assembly as an ally of other post-colonial countries is of no interest to Micheál Martin or Simon Harris. They now regard Ireland as part of the Western powers and they want to get in on the imperialist act, intervening in weaker countries and profiting from the arms industry, just like the rest of the EU and NATO. But to do that they must first get rid of the Triple Lock.
“The government has no mandate for that, and most people are opposed to it. So, while the government will be in Dublin Castle tomorrow afternoon to mark the start of Ireland’s EU Presidency, I will join a demonstration outside Dublin Castle from 1pm, with antiwar, pro neutrality peace, and Palestine solidarity groups to call for a People’s Europe and to say no to genocide and war.”