Niall O'Connor

THE GOVERNMENT IS considering avoiding the committee stage and bringing the Defence Bill legislative change for the controversial triple lock direct to the floor of the Dáil as a row with the opposition deepens, The Journal has learned.

The legislation will change how Ireland decides on deploying troops abroad.  

There are discussions at a high level in the government on how best to find a way to expedite the process. There is now consideration with Department of Defence policy experts and legal counsel advising that they could skip the committee stage during which TDs and senators can examine the bill section by section and propose amendments. 

It is not unusual for bills to be expedited to a vote in the Dáil. It has happened more than a dozen times this year. Essentially, the floor of the Dáil becomes the committee, and it speeds up the pace of the passage of the Bill.

Sinn Féin has previously criticised the practice that was used in changes to International Protection laws and short-term lets.

Helen McEntee, minister for defence, foreign affairs and trade, has accused Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh, the chairwoman of the Committee on Defence and National Security, of using delaying tactics to halt the legislation.

Conway-Walsh launched an attack today on the potential move to speed up the legislation and said the accusations are “utter nonsense”. 

In October, the Dáil voted by 79 to 71, approving the second reading of the Defence (Amendment) Bill – and to vote, substantively, for the first time to remove the ‘triple lock’ rule on the deployment of the Defence Forces.  

On Tuesday, in tense exchanges with Sinn Féin’s Donnacha Ó Laoghaire in the Dáil, McEntee hinted at the move to speed up the process. 

McEntee also accused Conway-Walsh of “ignoring us” as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs wrote to the Sinn Féin TD to push for the committee to go ahead. 

“There are many ways in which it can be brought through the House,” the minister said. 

“Sinn Féin is clearly trying to frustrate and delay the Bill so that when we try to bring it through the Houses, it will accuse us of rushing,” the minister said. 

McEntee went on to accuse Sinn Féin of using a “political tactic”.

The Journal has confirmed with defence and government sources that the possibility of ignoring committee stage is now on the table and that legal advice has been obtained by the minister. 

The view of the sources is that the State sees that the government have the numbers to allow it to pass through unhindered. Inside the government and the Department of Defence there is an eagerness, sources have said, to have the triple lock passed expeditiously.

Sources will not discuss why they want this done rapidly, but it is understood to be linked to potential international peacekeeping deployments of troops. 

‘Not playing political games’

Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway Walsh. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Speaking to The Journal this morning, Rose Conway-Walsh dismissed the accusations and said that any attempt to bypass the work of the committee would be “abhorrent” and an attack on the rule of law. 

“Now I haven’t been notified of this, but that would be a grave misjudgement and a display of disrespect to the democratic structures,” she said.

“But more importantly, it would be an absolute insult to the people of Ireland, who care deeply about our neutrality and about our foreign policy.

“Should the government attempt to usurp the work of the committee and to bulldoze through the legislation to abolish the triple lock, I think it would display an utter contempt for the people they purport to serve,” the TD said.

Conway Walsh said she was “not playing political games” and said that she is committed to getting the Committee to sit and make its recommendations. 

She said that this was due to take place on 12 November – this appears at the moment to be going ahead. The Sinn Féin TD said there have been delays because she has had to host a major three-day EU conference as part of her role on the committee. She also said that the current work-to-rule by civil servants is causing significant delays in the work of the Dáil. 

“So it is absolutely abhorrent that she [McEntee] would even suggest that we were using delaying tactics,” Conway-Walsh added. 

This can be done and is an occasional process for passing legislation. 

Legislation, before becoming law, generally passes through the houses of the Oireachtas in five phases. The Defence Bill is currently in the phase where it is discussed at committee stage, who will then make recommendations for amendments to it. 

The triple lock currently means that Ireland must satisfy three protocols before it deploys more than 12 troops abroad on a mission. There must be a UN Security Council agreed mandate, agreement of the cabinet in Dublin and a vote of the Dáil.

The new proposal will remove the need of a UN resolution – it would then depend on agreement of the cabinet and a vote in the Dáil before the deployment of 50 military personnel to a mission abroad.

The government’s argument for the move is that Ireland is dependent on the decisions of the countries with a veto on the UNSC. The opposition are of the view that the triple lock is a commitment to multilateralism and a key part of the Irish policy of neutrality. 

With additional reporting by Jane Matthews.