| Government Argument v Counter Point. | |
| 1 What the government says: | The United Nations (UN) undermines Irish sovereignty e.g.”Russia has a de facto veto over Irish troop deployments.” |
| Rebuttal: | *The UN is the world’s main peacekeeping body. Ireland signed up to UN rules when we joined in 1955. Ireland should not undermine the UN but instead work with other neutral and non-aligned countries to reform and re-establish the primacy of the UN as the forum to uphold international law and for resolving international disputes and conflicts *The Irish “Triple Lock” means that deployment of more than 12 members of the Irish Defence Force overseas on an armed peacekeeping mission requires authorisation of the mission by the UN, Irish Government, and the Dáil. The adoption of the Triple Lock including the UN requirement was a ‘sovereign’ decision made by the Irish people when they voted for the Nice 2 and Lisbon 2 Treaties. (The Triple Lock and Neutrality were enshrined in solemn National Declarations attached to both treaties.) *Current arrangements do not allow Russia or any other permanent member of the UN Security Council – the UK, China, the US and France – to effectively have a veto on Ireland participating in UN peacekeeping missions as the UN authorisation requirement can be obtained through either the UN Security Council or a UN General Assembly resolution. The government chooses to ignore this fact in its argument. * The Triple Lock does not apply for genuine overseas humanitarian rescue or emergency missions. *Only once has any of the 5 Permanent Members of the UN Security Council vetoed a peacekeeping mission (i.e. China 1999, before the Triple Lock existed). *Successive opinion polls demonstrate that the majority of the electorate want our current neutrality policies retained. The Triple Lock is central to our policy of neutrality, a policy which has been central to our ‘sovereignty’ as a State. |
2 What the government says: | Neutrality and the Triple Lock are NOT linked e.g. “Don’t conflate neutrality with the Triple Lock.” |
| Rebuttal: | * Micheál Martin, as leader of the opposition in 2013, said that the Triple Lock is “at the core of our neutrality.” * If we remove the UN mandate requirement, any Irish Government of the day could deploy troops to missions that take sides in conflicts—which is the opposite of neutrality. (e.g If the EU sends a battlegroup to Ukraine or Palestine without UN approval, and Ireland joins—we will no longer be a neutral state.) This illustrates how the ‘Triple Lock’ and neutrality are intrinsically linked. |