Should the triple lock be put to a referendum? Southside TDs weigh in

Southside TD Sinéad Gibney has called on the government to hold a referendum on the triple lock issue.

The Social Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson said that recent moves by government to potentially reform the triple lock should be put to a referendum instead of being decided on unilatery by the government.

“We have always been militarily neutral and as we all know, that does not mean that we are politically neutral; what it means is that we have a commitment to peace and diplomacy.”

The Dublin Rathdown TD cited the Nice and Lisbon referendums and the debates around Ireland’s neutrality and sovereignty as being key issues in those campaigns and that any major change to Ireland’s foreign policy should be put to a public vote.

A private members bill put forward by the Social Democrats saw TDs from both government and opposition parties discuss the issue in the Dáil this week.

“We know the government does not agree with us on neutrality. It has been very clear on that. That is why we have brought this motion. We should be able to agree on the basic democratic principle that a measure brought in to give people reassurance in the context of the Nice and Lisbon treaties and to secure their vote for those treaties should not be removed without their say.

Gibney said, “we punch above our weight in terms of diplomacy, human rights and peace. We need to invest in our defence forces to maintain that reputation, we need to act as champions for peace on the global stage and as a member state within the European Union, and we must retain the triple lock.”

Minister of State at the Department of Defence Thomas Byrne said, “some of the statements on the European Union that the Social Democrats have put out this week are worthy of Nigel Farage,” referring to comments made by Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne.

Hearne said, “the European Union is creating a fund of €800 billion that will go into the profits of the European arms industry, yet almost 100 million people in the European Union are living in poverty.”

“The European Union is the greatest peace project in the history of the world.  It is the greatest peace project in the history of the world. People can see the benefits in terms of peace, economic security and where we see our place in the world,” the Fianna Fáil TD added.

Byrne added that the results of the general election pointed to a clear majority within the Irish electorate to reform the triple lock.

He argued that Ireland’s current policy is not fit for the modern geopolitical moment. 

“In February 2022, Russia has used its veto power to stop action aimed at addressing the illegal war in Ukraine. Since October 2023, the US, China and Russia have exercised their vetoes in relation to the Middle East, including on resolutions concerning Palestine.”

“If the Irish government was on the Security Council now and tabled a motion on Palestine, almost certainly no matter what we said, it would be vetoed by one or other of the permanent members. In February of this year, the US and Russia opposed a European-drafted resolution supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and condemning the illegal and unjustified actions of Russia.”

Those vetoes, Byrne argued, are why Ireland needs to become more militarily independent.

People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett said, “the triple lock, as inadequate as the United Nations is, prevents us from deploying troops where empires are fighting against each other; it prevents us from sending troops and taking sides in battles between empires, because our tradition is to oppose empire.”

“The government wants to be able to deploy troops at the behest of Ursula von der Leyen or a US administration, which it goes grovelling over to and which insults and humiliates it as with the Trump administration.”

The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown TD said, “the government wants to allow US troops to go through Shannon as they rain down missiles in Yemen. Trump is a pig and a horror, a warmonger and an imperialist, and Ursula von der Leyen greenlighted the genocide in Gaza; this is what the government wants to involve us in.”

Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond said, “we govern by democracy, on the basis of the results of elections and we look at the numbers in the chamber when we make decisions.”

“When we make decisions on a legislative basis, we look back at manifestos and the programme for government.”

“The people who voted for me in Dublin Rathdown and for my colleague, Deputy O’Connell, did so while well aware of that. The 35% in that constituency who voted for us knew exactly what they were voting for when they backed us.

“Many people have said this is the end of neutrality or of military neutrality. This does not change one iota of our policy of military neutrality; I say that as someone whose personal opinion is that we should end our military neutrality,” the Dublin Rathdown TD said.

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe said, “we were colonised and know what it is like to struggle for freedom against a foreign invader. The principle of neutrality is a fundamental republican principle and was one of the cornerstones of the foundation of the Irish state.”

“Fine Gael has in the past described neutrality as a sham and has consistently voted in Europe to roll back any obstacle to Ireland’s participation in an increasingly militarised Europe, something we were told was only some fringe conspiracy theory during the Lisbon treaty debates,” he remarked.

The Tallaght TD said he was calling for a referendum on the triple lock issue as far back as 2013.

“All we need to do is to further expand the existing legislative framework to include circumstances such as the rescue of an Irish hostage abroad and repatriation, close protection for Irish officials in conflict zones and drug interdiction in waters just outside Ireland’s territorial waters; this way we can strengthen the triple lock rather than overturning it,” he said.

“A citizens’ assembly should be established with a view to bringing a wording for the constitutional amendment to enshrine neutrality in the Constitution so the government of the day may not run roughshod over the opinion that Irish people have expressed over and over again, which is that Ireland should not be a member of this club.”