Politics

Ireland can no longer pretend to be immune from realities of European security, says Charlie Flanagan

Invasion of Ukraine was Europe’s 9/11 and Ireland is ‘in President Putin’s crosshairs’

Charlie Flanagan noted Sweden and Finland’s abandonment of their long-term neutrality and joining Nato following the invasion of Ukraine. Photograph: Alan Betson

Marie O'Halloran
Sun Apr 7 2024 - 13:20

The Government has been urged to end the triple-lock on peacekeeping missions within the lifetime of this Administration, and the issue “cannot be long-fingered”. A call was also made for a stand-alone Minister for Defence to be appointed by the next government.

“Defence and security must be prioritised by Fine Gael over the coming months, and I appeal to Simon Harris to do so because time is not on our side”, former minister for foreign affairs Charlie Flanagan has warned.

He noted Sweden and Finland’s abandonment of their long-term neutrality and joining Nato following the invasion of Ukraine.

“I’m not advocating that Ireland join Nato but I am advocating that we look beyond neutrality.”

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Membership of Nato is not really an issue at this time, he said “though unfortunately sometimes we overlook the fact that Northern Ireland is part of Nato. As of now, Ireland has nothing to bring to Nato.”

In an impassioned speech at the Fine Gael ardfheis Mr Flanagan said, “Ireland can no longer pretend that we are in some way a special and separate case immune from the realities of European security and defence.

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“These realities are that Russia is more threatening, America is more uncertain and Europe is more unprepared,” he said.

“The unlawful invasion of Ukraine by Russia is Europe’s 9/11 and no European States are safe at the moment.” And he saw “dangerous parallels between President Putin now and Hitler in 1938″.

During a debate on military neutrality and the changing international political climate there were heated contributions about a motion to implement the Occupied Territories Bill, which was overwhelmingly defeated.

The debate was also warned to “make no mistake, Ireland is in President Putin’s crosshairs”. David Garrihy from the party’s Brussels branch pointed to Russian ships “carrying out provocative exercises in Irish territorial waters”.

“Have no doubt that within 10 years Putin will be either cutting internet cables or threatening shipping lanes in Irish waters. Our military neutrality means nothing to him,” he said.

Opening the debate attended by some 500 delegates Mr Flanagan warned against thinking Ireland was safe from attack because of its geographical location. “One strike at our undersea cables off the Atlantic coast would cripple our economy. We must be in a position to protect our critical infrastructure,” he said, adding that it was a “fundamental mistake to think that Putin could be appeased through territory being conceded” in the Ukrainian war.

He said that “as an island nation our failure to have a reasonably-sized Navy should be a cause of shame. Given the importance of Ireland from a data centre perspective and its location in relation to undersea cables”, an Irish Naval Service fit for purpose was required.

Minister of State Jennifer Carroll MacNeill called for a naval base in Dún Laoghaire stressing the importance of visibility of the service across the State. Kieran Horan, a retired member of the Naval Service from Cobh said that apart from Dún Laoghaire, there should probably be at least one or two naval ships based in Dublin, “maybe two in Galway, one in Waterford. We need ships right around the coast.”

Minister for Enterprise and former minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney warned that defence and European security is no longer abstract for Ireland. “It matters to us even though we don’t have any natural enemies.”

He said “there is a real danger that the world is moving away from the protective democracy in which small countries thrive, towards a might is right world where we have different polarising views where small countries like Ireland are forced to take sides”.

The structures we’ve lived in for effectively since the end of the second World War are almost dissolving around us

—  Minister of State Colm Brophy

Minister of State Peter Burke said “we are the honest broker in multilateralism and we really are respected for that. We should understand ourselves and invest in our strategy more”.

Ireland has a “unique position”, said Minister of State Colm Brophy. “We are a very respected for being an EU member but is also respected for bringing that political neutral position that we have.

“We take a particular stance on issues and we are very often listened to and are very often a bridge between our fellow EU members and certain countries which would listen to Ireland and do listen to us in a way they don’t listen to others.

“The structures we’ve lived in for effectively since the end of the second World War are almost dissolving around us. And Ireland has a key role to play both on the international stage in terms of the key role in ensuring that what comes next reflects our values and what we believe.”

Cllr Jack White from Carrigaline, Co Cork, calling for the Occupied Territories Bill to be implemented, said the argument against it was that Ireland would not do this alone and trade is an EU competence.

“But EU trade law says that a country can go it alone where they make a determination that based on public morality or protection of rights their decision is justified. On both of those counts, we know that Ireland is on safe grounds.”

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Delegate Cian Kelly read a letter from the chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland Maurice Cohen stating that the motion has caused huge hurt within the Irish Jewish community and the Bill is viewed as being anti-Semitic because it penalises Israel and the Jewish people.

Former minister of State John Paul Phelan said the legislation only applies to Israel and the proposers of the Bill “were very careful that it didn’t apply to Putin in Crimea”.

He added that “the hard left and the hard right are united on the question of Israel to my mind “are two cheeks of the same backside when it comes to this question. I never thought I would see a motion like this proposed at a Fine Gael ardfheis.”

Mr Coveney said Fine Gael should have debates on such bills which reflected people’s frustration at what is happening to the Palestinian people but he said the legislation is not legally sound.

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times

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