MINISTER FOR DEFENCE Helen McEntee has said the government has the mandate to remove the triple lock and that the public has “put their trust” in this government to make decisions like this. 

“We were a neutral country before the triple lock was introduced many decades ago, and to reassure people, we will continue to be a neutral country,” McEntee said today in Trim, Co Meath, where she is attending the annual Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) conference.

“However…we are not neutral when it comes to challenges, when it comes to security issues, when it comes to the risks that we face,” she said, adding that removing the triple lock is necessary to make sure Ireland can respond to the “threats” and “risks” we are “seeing more frequently”.

Her remarks come ahead of what is expected to be a bitter debate in the Dáil later this afternoon, as the government’s legislation to remove the triple lock, the mechanism under which Irish troops can be deployed overseas, is debated at second stage. 

Yesterday, members of opposition parties held up placards reading ‘save neutrality’ after heated exchanges with Taoiseach Micheál Martin over today’s debate. 

Under the triple lock, the deployment of more than 12 Irish troops must be approved by the UN, the government and a Dáil resolution. 

The government’s proposed legislation would remove the requirement for UN Security Council authorisation. 

The government argues the reform is necessary to ensure Ireland can respond more flexibly with peacekeeping missions and to prevent Ireland from being blocked from participating in international missions due to UN Security Council deadlock or vetoes by permanent members such as Russia.

‘The triple lock is not working’

Asked today if there is any appetite to put the changes to people in a referendum, McEntee said the triple lock was put in place at a “very different time” and that it is no longer working as intended. 

McEntee argued that removing the triple lock actually enhances Ireland’s neutrality by enabling Ireland to continue peacekeeping missions without UN approval. 

She pointed to the end of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in Lebanon as an example of the triple lock not working and noted that no new peacekeeping mission has been agreed by the UN Security Council since 2014. 

On a referendum, McEntee said that to alter the Irish Constitution in relation to this would make it “more difficult for us to respond to the changing world, to respond to evolving threats”. 

She also made the point that TDs are democratically elected and that the government’s removal of the triple lock is being done by democratic means. 

Her comments come after Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald yesterday accused the government of “pushing ahead” with the removal of the triple lock without consulting the people of Ireland. 

She accused the government of “moving away from peacekeeping and towards military adventurism” and said scrapping the policy “opens the door for Ireland to be dragged deeper into EU military structures”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin rejected these remarks as “outrageously hyperbolic”.

Includes reporting from Niall O’Connor in Trim