Tanaiste Leo Varadkar this morning
📣 Leo Varadkar all but opening the debate on Ireland’s military neutrality in the Dáil – says we have gotten by for 70yrs presuming nobody would attack us, and that even if we were, the US and UK would come to our defence… he says he’s not sure that’s tenable position any more
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) March 3, 2022
Boom.
This mornning/afternoon.
Dail Eireann.
FIGHT?
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Good Lord does he want to “lead” us to war when he returns to the role of Taoiseach? To be honest would Sinn Fein not be better suited to managing a war and an army?
He will do what he is told
And our constitutional neutrality what ever that is regarding irelands position about not sending combat troops is at odds to EU laws
We signed up to PESCO including commitments to join units of the Germany army in certain missions
Since 2017 we are no longer neutral
And we will be called upon in the future as confirmed by marked mc Guinness to playing our part
She refused to expand exactly what our role will be but
Keep banging the drums of war and before long Irish meat to the grinder
Let’s pray to god Putin withdraws the troops but with the rhetoric especially from the USA there is a fat chance
Unless Putin is outin by the Russian military
“And our constitutional neutrality what ever that is regarding irelands position about not sending combat troops is at odds to EU laws”
Literally every part of this sentence is incorrect.
At the moment yes but if it ends up with the EU declaring war as it could if NATO decides then what I said is a distinct possibility
The talk now is NATO invoking the article 5 which I believe can only be done if a NATO nation or Allie is attacked
As the drums of war are banged sanity goes out the window
I preferred Donald duck to Donald duckA
Is she like, marked with a crosshair?
Or is just a sort of lick of paint as an X?
That’s fine.
Put budgets together to show the amount of extra taxes that will be required to finance a functional army, and this debate will be quickly laid to rest.
The EU will fund it and the cost will be bourne by all EU NATIONS and it will be added onto our annual membership fee and if we cannot pay it we will have it added to our debt
It’s the young Irish blood which is the worry
Then of course if this drags on and europe needs conscription then I would say we will not escape it like it or not or face being not part of the team
Anyway let’s wait and see exactly the turd sandwich we might just have to eat
Who last week would of thought we would be now in this situation
It’s not as though the west did not realise Putin is some bastard and is it wise to poke the rabid bear
Varadkar trying to do as much damage to this country before he legs it from office.
No sign of the Criminal Investigation concluding?
Have you not copped it yet
We spend 800 years under a British empire to run into the arms of another empire
Since the crash we have not had government just administration for creditors
Like it or not both Varadkar mehole and anyone who will succeed will continue being told what to do
neutrality does not equal defencelessness.
the man’s an idiot.
Agreed a total tossed but sadly we cannot stop that idiot
Only by an election
FFG are mad to get us into NATO.
Think of all the biolabs they coud hide here under the data centres!
Power to the people.
How many billions of euro will it cost us? Who’s going to print that money? If we borrow military money, how long will it take, at what interest rate, to pay back, and to which banks?
There’s nothing stopping that ape from going to Ukraine himself if he’s so interested in bombing and shooting and dying a painful death
Ape!?!
Let’s face it. Ireland has no way at all to defend itself from almost any invading force.
Perhaps the best thing to do now is to offer Boris some slots at Casement Aerodrome for a few Typhoons or better still Lightnings.
Forget this self determination and ‘neutrality’ nonsense and return to the safety and comfort of Her Majesty’s motherly bosom.
Better you come to that decision yourselves before Boris makes it for you.
I don’t know. We have a good few people in here who could bore others to death.
If only we could drop 4 WMDs on Moscow Leo mehole eamo and simple simon
poor charger, did margarita night finally get to you? you’ve gone full bandido today.
I don’t know who this Charger fellow is but I like the cut of his jib if that’s how he thinks.
He’s right though.
Ireland is only able to stay neutral because others – like the RAF patrolling Irish air space – pick up the tab.
At least start by developing a proper functioning navy that has sufficient crew to put more than one ship to sea.
It’s rather like the barstool republicans on here who want a united Ireland but snivel about the cost then say maybe but not just yet because I’d rather spend the money on a rake of pints and a fish supper.
Time to man up and get up.
Off your knees that is.
“It’s rather like the barstool republicans on here who want a united Ireland but snivel about the cost then say maybe but not just yet because I’d rather spend the money on a rake of pints and a fish supper.”
These people exist only in your head charger
So to patrol our own waters effectively we need to join NATO, what kind of bent logic is that.
tequila hangover logic, that’s what.
He might be right and it’s a debate that should be had but it needs to be that, a debate with – as others have said – all the facts on the table.
Ultimately I think I’d rather we maintained our neutrality while meeting our humanitarian responsibilities.
Our “neutrality” died the day the first warplanes landed at Shannon.
I was going to touch on that by posing the question of how can we maintain the facade of neutrality when we let war planes refuel here.
Don’t forget Shannon’s role in the legally dubious practice of “rendition” on the way to Butlins in Cuba aka GIMO to try the water slide
What I think he may be trying to articulate albeit very poorly is that in pure economic terms (I’ll leave the moral constitutional philosophical arguments to others far more adept in such matters) that Ireland has a bit of a free rider problem with NATO. Agnostic opinion btw.
Thanks ANO for the first measured comment here.
A lot of folks focussing on the messenger here, let’s leave Leo out of it.
For me, the case for standing by our friends is flippin’ obvious.
We don’t have the enemy at the gates, they do.
I believe very strongly that we should get off the fence.
Why would we be attacked? and by whom?
The Isle of Man.
Just because it can.
I’d say even Andorra would probably chance its arm at this stage.
We’d get licked by Liechtenstein too.
Probably iced by Iceland too …
Easily get sent down to Chinatown.
They have a large armed forces.
Spare a thought to Prince Albert whose Monaco is more or less an oligarchy’s principality
Imagine the hem having to freeze all those assets or face the wrath of France and the EU UK and USA
It was Muslim terrorists coming for soft touch Ireland a few years ago, now the Russians coming for weak link Ireland. Years ago there was speculation that MS13 were eyeing up our country as ideal cartel territory. Who’s the next fictitious invaders? Maybe the Mongrol army reincarnated
Entire western world will be infested with sexual deviants and nonwhites in 10-15 years time. See how you like that when your wife or daughter cannot walk out the door without protection
So we should shore up our military to prepare to do battle with non white sexual deviants?
Tell me your joking.
Do we train our soldiers to aim for their crotches?
Assuming your daughter is single, I would expect she is already carrying protection.
get a grip Piotr, no on wants your missus
Russians pooped their pants over Cork fishing fleets.
That Russian flotilla sailed right past where they said they were having those exercises, laughing all the way to the Black Sea.
The Ustinov has been there with her group supporting the special operation to blow up Ukraine since early Feb.
on that subject…
there’s only 2 ways in to the Black Sea
via the Med which means past Gibraltar ultimately
via the Suez which is Egypt
the Brits are hardly ever going to allow unhindered passage to them ever again
whilst the Egyptians will hardly fancy it seeing the unity in sanctions and how bats Putin actually is
have the Russians effectively fupped themselves on that score?
We are grand failing everything the two lads from west cork who sent the Russian navy off from the Celtic are here
Maybe time they have the Irish government lessons on
How not to become jackasses
decent horsemen at least
sorry that was at the mongol comment
Verona Murphy is still watching Wexford Bridge and Barrow Bridge, day and night, ready to leap into action like a modern-day Sergeant Custume.
Or maybe she’s forgot.
The biggest danger to this country is that man, he’s a fool with an overinflated sense of his own importance.
I don’t know how the spineless goon is still around. He didn’t even have the guts to get behind gay marriage until it seemed likely to pass in the referendum.
He’s a WEF global youth leader graduate.
I’m sure he’s paving the way to Ireland being part of the ‘in the cards’ European army.
It was really cool the day the two fishermen went to the Russia Embassy to discuss matters concerning the sea and their livelihood. Diplomatic talks are war by another method.
(Annoying that people here slagged them off because of their clothing.)
I kinda hope Varadker leads the inevitable referendum campaign on this one
he’s such a sociopath, he’s blind to just how much people in this country cannot stand him
that it’s bound to fail
go for it boy
he’s Mummy’s special boy
even if we put 3bn into defence. If Russia decided they wanted to invade and use Ireland as a launchpad to attack Europe, they still could. Or if they nuked England, they wouldn’t hold back because of us. Neutral or not.
I’m no military strategist, but how could the Russian army sneak around all Europe with an army to attack via the Atlantic ocean? They couldn’t get their own soldiers into position to attack Ukraine without the world and his brother knowing
just nip in around behind Scandinavia and theyre here. thats why they were doin practice stuff in the water beside us. basically scoping it out.
Scoping out the sea bed internet cables more like.
You better hope they’re not monitoring your internet activity SOQ ;)
they might never recover ;)
Our much lauded and illegally celebrated seat on the Security Council has really made a huge difference, look how we helped stop that bit of nastiness in Ukraine…oh wait!
Anyway…champagne all around, chin-chin! If we join Nato there’ll be even more jobs for the boys and better champagne, tally-ho!
I can imagine Varadkar would get quite het up at the idea of lots of young, working class lads dying for global capitalism.
Hits so many of of his hopes and dreams.
“it will give them some kind of purpose in life”