Simon Harris

Deputy Ní Raghallaigh is so wrong. It is disgraceful.

I move: That Dáil Éireann: condemns the attacks by Israel on civilians and human rights activists including Irish citizens participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, seeking to deliver aid to the beleaguered and starving population of Gaza; demands that: — no action is taken by Israel that endangers the welfare or safety of peaceful Irish citizens and other human rights activists aboard the G…

We have already arranged it.

The revised national development plan capital allocation for the defence Vote group for the period 2026 to 2030 is €1.7 billion. This represents an increase of €600 million, or 55%, on the previous baseline of €1.1 billion. For 2026, the defence capital allocation will increase by €85 million, or 40%, to €300 million. Capital investment in defence primarily provides for the renewal, retention and …

I largely agree with Deputy Ó Laoghaire. I welcome and acknowledge the fact that there is, broadly, cross-party support and support across the House for increased spending on defence and security. We will have different views and perspectives, perhaps, on where to prioritise that level of spending. However, we all recognise as a militarily unaligned neutral country that we still have to take our o…

I will check that for the Deputy as I do not have that information in my notes and I do not want to mislead the House. I am not aware that they are not on track but I will check and come back to the Deputy on that today. Yes, we are on track for 2027. As the Deputy rightly said at the outset, I do not want to get ahead of ourselves here in the sense that, in fairness to all parts of the defence i…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As the Deputy knows, public service pension schemes, including for the Defence Forces, provide for the payment of spouses’ and children’s pensions. However, such pensions are only payable where the deceased had been a member of the relevant spouses’ and children’s scheme. I do not want to delve too much into somebody's information but the facts of this c…

I am sympathetic to the broader point the Deputy is making and I certainly extend my thanks and that of the State to the individual for their service with distinction in our Defence Forces. Neither the Deputy nor I were around in the seventies or eighties but my note tells me that, at the time, detailed information was provided and there were extensive briefings. There was meant to be that firm cu…

I am very happy to do that.

At the outset, I very much agree with the Deputy. For an island nation, the development of a robust, comprehensive national maritime security strategy is key. Indeed, this was identified as a priority in last year's defence policy review. I am pleased to say that the strategy is now being developed in consultation with national and international stakeholders and it is expected to be delivered to m…

I agree with that. We will get to it in a second but there will of course be current public expenditure as well, including making sure we have the men and women to operate and implement any such infrastructure and that we grow the size of our navy as well. Last year's defence policy review did recommend a focus on maritime security because of our assessed threat level, our geographic position and …

The Deputy is right to highlight a particular challenge when it comes to our Naval Service. I join him in thanking its members for their exemplary service. We do need to grow our navy and that requires more men and women in our Naval Service. It also requires more than me just saying that at a headline level. It also involves identifying, as the Deputy rightly said, the specialist skills. What bec…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 5 together. I agree with Deputy Gibney that it is absolutely the Government's intention to bring about a change in terms of how we deploy our troops overseas. I am quite clear on that. Where we disagree is how we see that. I see it as entirely possible to do that while respecting being a militarily neutral country. I have spoken to many of my counterparts in …

Firstly, I agree with the Deputy's characterisation of what happened at the UN Security Council, which I believe is accurate. We did work very hard and I particularly commend the French, who held the pen in trying to come up with a compromise solution. There was a real risk that we would have seen a withdrawal of peacekeeping troops in some sort of chaotic manner from southern Lebanon. I was very …

I know it is the left and the far left but Deputy Gibney is well able to speak for herself and it is her question. Switzerland follows international law very well. Does anybody doubt the neutrality of the Swiss? They do not have a triple lock. Does anybody doubt the neutrality of Austria? They do not have a triple lock. This is trying to whip up a frenzy. I have heard it: "Simon Harris and Micheál…

Where are we going to send the peacekeepers if we are reliant on the UN Security Council providing a peacekeeping mission? Where are we going to send Irish peacekeepers, considering it has not supported any peacekeeping missions since 2014 and has now effectively ended-----

-----the largest overseas peacekeeping mission we are involved in? Where are we going to send them?

We are going to be sending them on peacekeeping missions that are consistent with the UN Charter and the approval of the Government and the approval of the Dáil. I do not understand-----

The triple lock-----

-----requires the UN Security Council.

The Deputy was late to my initial remark. I am very happy to have a conversation with Deputies Murphy, Gibney and Ó Laoghaire about how we can strengthen within the legislation references to the UN Charter. I even have some ideas I am happy to discuss with them about how we can oversight mechanisms in making sure anything our peacekeepers go on is consistent with the UN Charter. That is 100%. I va…

In the current manifesto-----

The leader of Fianna Fáil, the Taoiseach of the country, was very clear in his views on the triple lock.

He proposed it when he was Minister for Defence. I have been crystal clear with regard to it as well. We had an election and formed a government. We do not need to run back to the people to have a referendum on every issue. We are very clear, and I believe the majority of people in this country trust their own democracy and certainly not Russia's as to where our peacekeepers go.

I thank the Deputy as one of the few Members who has worn the uniform and represented our country with distinction in Óglaigh na hÉireann and indeed in southern Lebanon. She is someone who can speak with authority on a lot of these issues. I thank her for raising the matter. She will be aware that there has been significant progress made on pay and conditions for Defence Forces personnel, particu…