Irish neutrality should be put to a public vote, say Sinn Féin

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

The Government should put Irish neutrality to a public vote, Sinn Féin have said.

The party launched their policy, Protecting Ireland’s Neutrality, in Dublin on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at the event, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said if the Government wanted to “dismantle” the Triple Lock on neutrality they are “honour bound” to “go to the people and seek the democratic mandate”.

The Triple Lock is the mechanism for sending Irish troops on peacekeeping missions.

Under it, Ireland cannot deploy any more than 12 Defence Forces peacekeepers overseas without a peacekeeping mission being approved by a vote of the UN Security Council, by the government and by the Dáil.

McDonald also said the party want a referendum to be put to Irish voters to “include a positive assertion of Irish neutrality within the Irish constitution”.

In addition, she said Sinn Fein want the position of neutral countries, like Ireland, to be “reflected in the basic laws of the European Union”.

She said neutral countries are a “string to the bow of European politics and diplomacy” because of their capacity to “build conflict resolution” and “peaceful dialogue”.

Asked if Sinn Féin would withdraw Ireland from EU defence arrangements, the party’s spokesman on defence, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, said previous governments had made “many commitments” a Sinn Fein government would not have.

He said, in government, Sinn Fein would examine each one and “where it was possible to disentangle ourselves from that, we would seek to do so.

“Obviously, that would have to be on a case by case basis, but we certainly wouldn’t be making any new commitments.”