We have gone through much of the argument, but a briefing note has come in since our last discussion. I am opposing this section, and I have said removing the requirement of the IDA or Enterprise Ireland to get approval from the Government to support people involved in the defence and security sector looks, to my mind, very much like promotion of the arms industry and an encouragement of Irish industry and business to get involved in the arms industry. I do not think we should be doing that. As a neutral country, we should not be promoting, encouraging or making it easier in any way for Irish industry or business to get involved with the arms industry.
I am not sure if I made this point the last time, but ReArm Europe, which is going to be a centrepiece of the EU Presidency and EU policy, is about massively expanding the arms sector. It is more or less doubling European expenditure on the military armament and defence sector from a current level of about €400 billion, which is a lot of money. To put it in perspective, Russia, which has been presented as and shown itself to be a dangerous threat and military aggressor with brutal, terrible consequences for the people of Ukraine, has a military expenditure of about €190 billion. Europe's combined expenditure on weapons and armament is already double that, and now we are going to go to more than €800 billion. It is also worth saying that various countries in the European Union have had licences to export armaments to the State of Israel in recent years to the tune of about €800 million. That is an awful lot of armaments and weaponry to go to Israel while it commits a genocide.
I do not want to see Ireland involved in that, and as far as I am concerned, there is a straightforward opportunity cost here. There are things that are more important, and I suspect more desired and wanted by the people of this country, which would see Europe and this country prioritise investment, enterprise and industrial development in areas more socially beneficial. The slogan on the protest we had today outside the EU Presidency launch was, "No to tanks and drones; we want schools and homes." It is a very simple idea, but a good one. It would be far better to invest in things that are beneficial to human beings and make their lives better, rather than involving ourselves in developing weaponry and armaments that are designed to murder people and are doing exactly that in Palestine.
I do not want to see Europe or Ireland go in this direction. As I said, it deeply worries me that during the height of the genocide against the Palestinian people, we had considerable numbers of dual-use goods going from this country. I know the Government will say it is just red tape, but the truth is that even in the note the Minister gave us, which I have in front of me here, he is effectively saying it is unnecessary because we want small and medium enterprises - I think the Minister said this himself the last time - to benefit from the expansion of this sector. I do not, and I do not think as a neutral country we should promote or encourage that. We should put as much red tape and obstacles as possible in the way of it. Generally, I do not think Enterprise Ireland or the IDA should be doing this.
The Minister might say if he has any idea of the current volume of Enterprise Ireland or IDA involvement and support for that defence, security and armament sector. It is an important debate, and while the Minister might not agree with me, the public have a right to know and understand to what extent our State agencies and this country are involved in encouraging and promoting this sector. We should have an open, public debate about whether we want to be involved in that sector.
That is most of what I want to say. I will be interested to hear any response the Minister might have.
