The Government is using fears about Russia to make an “insincere” argument against the triple lock, according to an alliance of Opposition politicians.
Left-wing and Independent politicians have claimed that a number of Government TDs and Senators are uncomfortable with plans to relax the legal barriers that can stop Irish troops from being deployed overseas.
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire of Sinn Féin, Paul Murphy of People Before Profit, Duncan Smith of Labour, Patricia Stephenson of the Social Democrats, and Independent Senator Alice Mary Higgins held a joint press conference today along with a number of civil society groups calling for the retention of the lock.
The triple lock is the mechanism under which Ireland can deploy more than 12 troops on missions abroad. Such deployments require the approval of the Government, Dáil Éireann and the UN Security Council.
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The Government has consistently argued that this gives countries like Russia or China, who enjoy permanent membership of the UN Security Council, the power to veto Ireland’s participation in international missions. The UN has not agreed a new peacekeeping mission since 2014.
Last month, the Government approved plans brought forward by Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris to unravel the triple lock. Mr Harris has said he wants to make progress with the controversial legislation before the Dáil summer recess.
Labour’s Mr Smith said the Government’s discomfort with Russia’s place on the council “seems to be quite recent” and that the issue was not about the status of the UN Security Council.
“I would say they are being insincere in that,” Mr Smith said.
He said he believed some Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbench TDs and Senators were against their own Government’s plans to scrap the triple lock.
[ Government wants progress on scrapping triple lock before Dáil breakOpens in new window ]
“I do believe there are people in Government that share our position, and we need to reach out to them and try to get them to change the minds of what’s going on in Cabinet at the moment, and the public are on our side.
“This is just stuff that you pick up on the margins of meetings or corridor chats and all the rest. They will be getting heat on this from people that don’t want to see Irish troops being deployed, which is the majority of people ... it is a headache that backbenchers don’t want.”
Ms Higgins said she believed Government politicians who want to keep the triple lock “have a deeper understanding than maybe some of the Ministers seem to have”.
“Because we’re getting a very, very narrow description of neutrality as being this entirely technical matter of, ‘Are we fully paid up members of Nato?’ rather than, ‘Are we a country that fulfils that principle under Article 29 of the Constitution?’ – which is the peaceful settlement of international disputes,” she added.
Save Our Neutrality, a cross-party campaign to keep the triple lock, will be holding a demonstration this Saturday against Government plans to relax the legal barriers for sending Defence Forces overseas.
