Government to oppose 'unnecessary' bill on holding neutrality referendum 

Paul Murphy: Claimed that Fine Gael has been trying to "undermine what semblances remain of neutrality" long before the war in Ukraine.
Picture: Gareth Chaney

The Government is to oppose a bill to hold a referendum on the issue of neutrality, claiming it is not necessary.

Solidarity-PBP is bringing forward the bill to amend the constitution, which will be debated and voted upon in the Dáil tomorrow.

The group has pointed out that at the moment the Government can "ditch" neutrality as it is a matter of policy, and a referendum to enshrine our position as a militarily neutral country into the constitution would prevent this.

Solidarity-PBP TD Paul Murphy said he believes if people were given the choice between investing in fighter jets and building social and affordable homes, the public would undoubtedly vote to remain as a neutral country.

Mr Murphy said: "Obviously, this bill is being put forward in a particular context and that's a context of the political establishment in Ireland, very cynically, in my opinion, trying to use the context of Putin's brutal, horrendous criminal invasion of Ukraine, to try to achieve what they already wanted to achieve."

He claimed that Fine Gael has been trying to "undermine what semblances remain of neutrality" long before the war in Ukraine.

Mr Murphy hit out at senior figures in the Government for their "extremely concerning" comments around the need to review Ireland's stance as a neutral nation.

"The Taoiseach has explicitly said that neutrality is a policy matter which can change at any time, the Tánaiste has spoken about the need to participate in European defence," he said. 

"The Minister for Foreign Affairs [Simon Coveney] last week spoke about it being likely that Ireland would participate in this European reaction force, another significant step towards a European army and questioned the triple lock, which again, restricts the hands of political establishment in Ireland in relation to participating in military actions."

The Government is to oppose the PBP motion, with a spokesperson stating that it is "unnecessary".

The Government also is of the view that a constitutional amendment would eliminate any flexibility Ireland has to respond to emergencies and that the Solidarity-PBP bill may preclude supply of humanitarian aid.