Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

This question relates to funding, primarily for training locations at Gormanston, Baldonnel, Haulbowline and the DFTC, and the infrastructure master plans for same.

I thank the Tánaiste. For the record, I appreciate there are constraints, given the window we are in, in terms of what the Tánaiste can tell me. What he will tell me is another question, maybe. In general, I put on record that we support increasing defence expenditure provided it is done in a wise and rational way. It is vitally important that we are investing in the areas of most relevance to us …

To come back to some of the brass tacks in terms of the training objectives outlined in the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, there was one objective for the future and another that I hope has been progressed a bit. Will the Tánaiste give an update on it? It was recommended that a new communication information workshop facility at the training centre would commence in 2024. The cadet…

3. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence to provide an update on the national maritime security strategy; and the level of funding that has been committed for 2026 and 2027. [49299/25]

The area of maritime security is one of the most salient to us as an island nation. If we are talking about increasing defence expenditure, we must surely ensure that our seas are safeguarded against traditional threats but also against new and expanding threats such as threats to undersea cables, hybrid threats and so on. A maritime security strategy is obviously something that is very timely but…

Addressing this in a way that is sustainable will require some current spending as well as capital spending and I might come back to that in my last contribution. The threats that are potentially faced are multiple. There are obviously the traditional issues that the Defence Forces faced in ensuring the protection of Irish waters in a fishing and general sort of sense but also as regards the issue…

On that, and it partially relates to my first question, it is important after the budget that the Department would publish a document outlining where we now stand with the revised capital development plan and to mark that against the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. That would be a useful document if it were possible to achieve. One of the areas in which the gap between the current …

There is only so far 1% will go.

5. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence if he will outline his proposals to remove the triple lock neutrality protection; when he intends to bring forward a Bill; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49300/25]

I will return to some of the things that we discussed in the committee but I might first respond on the issue of UNIFIL and what this means in terms of the UN. I wish to say clearly that I regret very much the decisions that have been taken in relation to UNIFIL. A lot of work would have gone on behind the scenes to ensure there was not a cliff edge. This was important so that the least worst outc…

The Swiss and the Austrians have constitutional protections in terms of neutrality so perhaps that is a conversation the Tánaiste wants to have. Instead of legislation governing the triple lock then perhaps the Tánaiste wants to have a conversation about us looking at constitutional protection for neutrality. Let us have that conversation. I suspect that is not what is in the Tánaiste's mind. If t…

Fianna Fáil was not.

The Tánaiste's party was not either.

I will raise three points. I have made most of my primary arguments but I have three matters to clarify. I am not specifically addressing Deputy Clendennen, but there has been talk of misinformation. Some Government Deputies have tried to say that the issue of the triple lock has nothing to do with neutrality. The idea that the legislation that references how Irish troops are deployed outside the …

15. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence the number of residential Defence Forces buildings that are currently not habitable, and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49304/25]

Our Defence Forces camps have a large number of residential buildings, many of which are either not in use or uninhabitable. About 85% of the buildings in Cork are uninhabitable, while the number across the State is 153, with 71 buildings unoccupied and 79 uninhabitable. I appreciate that the circumstances are a bit different from those when they were first built, but there is still scope for more…

Some of what exists on the various campuses dates from a different time in the context of what is expected in terms of accommodation, but also with respect to family arrangements and so on. It is nonetheless the case there is a housing crisis so it is easy to understand why people feel frustrated. We have members of the Defence Forces who are struggling to find accommodation, especially when they …

Related to a previous question, one of the considerations should be former Defence Forces personnel who, for various reasons, have low incomes and find it difficult to find accommodation. Obviously it should have the same standards the Minister has in mind. That should also be a consideration when we are looking at residential blocks. I am aware there will be a detailed assessment of this, but ar…

Yet again this week, we have seen statements by US President Donald Trump in relation to bruising and punishing tariffs on European economies and, by extension, Ireland. The debate around tariffs has gone back and forth. Deadlines have been postponed, not met. However, we would be foolish to dismiss the risks to Ireland. For workers in the sectors most at risk, it is not an exaggeration to say tha…

I return to the issue of vulnerabilities. It may be the case that the issue of new tariffs has come onto the table since the election of President Trump for the second time. It has returned to the agenda. Sinn Féin and others in the Opposition have made the case for many years that, even aside from tariffs, Ireland is vulnerable to a change in the economic climate because of the economic model we …

I, too, was at the same meeting as Deputy Gould. I have been going to political meetings since I was 17 or 18 years of age and I have never left a meeting more shook than I was by that meeting. Some of the stories would make your blood boil and some would break your heart, to hear the accounts of the pain and on top of the pain and suffering, the grief in some instances that some of the women were…

-----but I am a bit distracted, to be totally honest. I want to address the Minister because I am appealing to her. The attitudes that are being encountered are so dismissive. It is not as if members of the medical profession, or a large section of the profession, were unaware or that this is a new disease or condition. It was not as if there was no knowledge of the best kind of treatment. The Min…

1. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the situation in Sudan, and on the Government's position on same. [38023/25]

I wish to highlight that there is a defence committee meeting this morning, so I will take the Priority Questions and then I will have to depart to attend that. On my first question, the Tánaiste and I had a brief exchange last week in the committee regarding an area of huge human suffering and human rights infringements. Many people are facing hunger and displacement in Sudan, an area that proba…

Sudan is a very significant country in the region with a large population of about 50 million. It is in that context that the scale of what is being faced is to be recognised. Different reports suggest that the number of people displaced is between 9 and 12 million, with some 24.6 million facing acute hunger. That is almost half the population. There are significant ramifications for the surroundi…