Proposals to scrap the State’s triple lock system for the deployment of Defence Forces troops overseas have been approved by Cabinet, prompting sharp Opposition criticism questioning the implications for Ireland’s military neutrality.
Ministers approved an outline of draft legislation to remove the effective veto of permanent members of the UN Security Council on Ireland deploying more than 12 troops on missions abroad.
Under the plans, any future large deployments such as peacekeeping missions would still require Government and Dáil approval and would have to be in accordance with the UN Charter.
The proposed law would also allow for up to 50 troops to be deployed without a Dáil resolution.
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The next step in changing the law will be for the Bill to be sent to an Oireachtas Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny.
Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris said that under the current triple lock “countries like [UNSC member] Russia have the power to veto Ireland’s participation in missions”.
“We don’t believe that [Vladimir] Putin or other leaders should have a veto on whether our troops can be deployed.”
He added that Irish neutrality means Ireland does not participate in military alliances or common defence arrangements.
He said the proposed amendments “in no way affect” Ireland’s policy of military neutrality.
The plans were debated in the Dáil, with Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan accusing Taoiseach Micheál Martin of “ripping up a multilateral approach.”
He said the UN mandate “gives legitimacy to peacekeeping missions” and the Government’s move “would bring us into a unilateral approach”.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty pointed to weekend opinion polls that “there is absolutely no public appetite for a change in policy. Yet you propose to dismantle the triple lock, which is a key protection for neutrality.”
He said that if the Taoiseach is so confident in his approach he should call a referendum on the issue.
Mr Martin said the national consultative forum he established showed the triple lock has ”nothing to do with the perception of Ireland on the international stage”. He said the State has been viewed “as an honest broker”, looking at issues through the lens of humanitarian law.
He told Mr O’Callaghan he “cannot, in conscience, stand over a situation where we would say that Russians should have a veto over whether Ireland participates in peacekeeping”, when it had ripped up the multilateral order through its “brutal invasion of Ukraine”.
Earlier, Labour leader Ivana Bacik told reporters her party wants to see the triple lock retained. She said her party is “very conscious of the imperfections of the United Nations” and has particular concerns around the Security Council operation.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said the triple lock is the foundation stone of Irish neutrality and “by definition, means that Ireland does not align with any existing military bloc”.
He claimed the Government is using the current crisis in Ukraine as a mechanism to start to send Irish troops as part of EU missions.”
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy argued that the triple lock “is the only thing really that stands between this Government - or any future government - and the deployment of troops to missions that are called peacekeeping missions, but have nothing to do with peacekeeping whatsoever”.
