OVER 400 ACADEMICS and university workers have signed a letter calling on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to reconsider the plans to scrap the Triple Lock.

A similar letter was sent this time last year after the Cabinet signed off on a bill to dismantle the Triple Lock for Irish military involvement in operations abroad.

In January of this year, Cabinet agreed to press ahead with the steps required to abolish the Triple Lock.

The Triple Lock is a mechanism that sets out the conditions under which more than 12 Irish troops can participate in overseas peacekeeping or peace support operations.

For troops to take part, the operation must be; mandated by the United Nations; approved by the Government; and approved by Dáil Éireann by means of a resolution. 

However, the Government plans to remove the requirement for UN approval and to increase the number of troops that can be deployed without a Dáil vote from 12 to 50.

The Government has argued that this would remove the power of UN Security Council permanent members, such as Russia, to veto Ireland’s national sovereign decisions.

Last month in the Dáil, Minister for Defence Helen McEntee said that the “removal of the Triple Lock will do nothing to alter or undermine Ireland’s policy of military neutrality”.

The letter signed by over 400 academics and university workers both in Ireland and abroad has called on Martin to “play a more active role in promoting the values enshrined in the UN Charter and our constitution”.

McEntee last month told the Dáil that the Triple Lock is a “statutory mechanism rather than a constitutional one”.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson said the letter “emphasised the dramatic deterioration in the global geopolitical situation since last year”.

“In the past three months alone, the United States has carried out illegal attacks on Venezuela and Iran, threatened to invade Greenland, and escalated a devastating and illegal embargo on Cuba,” said a spokesperson.

The spokesperson added that the letter “contrasted the equivocating response of the Irish Government to the attacks on Iran with those of the Spanish government, where Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez barred the US from using its military bases for conducting its illegal war on Iran”.

They also accused the Government of “hiding behind the ambiguous label of ‘militarily neutral’ while continuing to allow Shannon airport to be used by US warplanes”.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson said the Government’s “failure to speak out and defend international law undermines any claims that in the absence of the Triple Lock, overseas troop deployments would remain in line with the UN system”. 

The letter also “restated the centrality of the Triple Lock to Ireland’s neutrality” and argued that it provides an “essential bulwark against the overseas deployment of Irish troops unless there is a UN mandate to do so”.

“At a time when the UN faces unprecedented challenges, and war and conflicts intensify, the letter calls on the Taoiseach to face down warmongers and redouble Ireland’s commitment to peace and neutrality, to genuine multilateralism, and to upholding the rule of law,” said the spokesperson.

“Protecting the Triple Lock would send a message to the Irish people and to the global community that Ireland intends to do precisely that.”