Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has described the Government\u2019s decision to vote against Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Neutrality Bill as shameful.<\/p>\n
This legislation\u00a0calls for the insertion of\u00a0neutrality\u00a0into the Constitution and\u00a0seeks to amend Bunreacht na h\u00c9ireann to ensure that Ireland will not and could not aid foreign powers in any way in preparation for a war save with the full assent of the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cSinn F\u00e9in tabled this Neutrality Bill to ensure that Irish Governments cannot continue to undermine Irish\u00a0neutrality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bill would have triggered a referendum and given the Irish people the opportunity to vote on whether to insert neutrality in Bunreacht na h\u00c9ireann. It would also ensure that Ireland would not and could not aid foreign powers in any way in preparation for a war save with the assent of the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an extremely important piece of legislation as Irish neutrality continues to be undermined by successive Governments. Successive Governments have also made executive decisions to join NATO\u2019s ironically named Partnership for Peace (PfP) and ensured that Shannon Airport facilitated troops being transported to join the illegal invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Bill was about giving power back to the Irish people and allowing them to decide if they wanted to stop the erosion of Irish neutrality by enshrining it into the Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe further militarisation of the EU is a significant and ongoing threat to Ireland\u2019s neutrality. This was graphically highlighted at the weekend when the President of the European Commission called for the creation of an EU Army and was supported by the German Defence Minister.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cFine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s opposition to the positive bill and a neutrality bill is not very surprising, and Labour\u2019s u-turn on the issue, considering they backed and voted in favour of the same Bill in 2003 is disappointing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy voting down attempts to debate neutrality and on holding a referendum on the issue Fine Gael, Labour, and Fianna F\u00e1il are sending out a clear message today that they have no problem with the continued erosion and undermining of Irish neutrality.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has described the Government\u2019s decision to vote against Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Neutrality Bill as shameful. This legislation\u00a0calls for the insertion of\u00a0neutrality\u00a0into the Constitution and\u00a0seeks to amend Bunreacht na h\u00c9ireann to ensure that Ireland will not and could not aid foreign powers in any way in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defence","category-neutrality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2100,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2099\/revisions\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}