What's your view? Irish neutrality

In every issue of The Bottom Line, we ask students for their thoughts on a particular topic. This month, we want to know: what are your thoughts on Irish neutrality?

Karen Chandrakanth

PwC

Ireland’s policy of military neutrality has long been an important strand of Ireland’s independent foreign policy. 

'Change' does not necessarily mean drastic; it can also mean to evolve – joining NATO is not the only option that confronts us. 

We must also consider strengthening what we have and evolving our stance to further develop cyber, airspace and naval defences. 

For every decision made regarding our neutrality and defences, there will be two sides to the argument. Whichever way we fall, our decisions must have an
 impact for the better. 

Change can happen in phases, but drastic or lack of change should not be an option.

Sarah Byrne Browne

RBK Chartered Accountants

Ireland's neutrality has been questioned many times over the years, especially in recent times.

I think we also need to question: has Ireland's neutrality been slowly eroded? For example, our governments have been encouraged to let America and other European countries use Shannon Airport as a stopover on their way to the Middle East.

Our army also has peacekeepers in Africa. If this is a permanent arrangement, could our island be seen as a threat, and are we opening ourselves up to possible attacks from other countries with a grievance against the US or NATO? 

Going forward, should Ireland have more safeguards in place? More and more nowadays countries are victims of cyber-attacks; how ready are we for these? 

We remain neutral, so there wouldn’t be too much of a threat regarding the above but it begs the question of how we keep our neutrality whilst also trying to help others.

Clodagh Murphy

PwC

Irish neutrality is a phrase which has been frequenting headlines in recent times. 

Due to international events, most prominently the war in Ukraine, many have questioned
 if Ireland’s neutral stance is still the best way forward. 

This past June we watched with interest as a group of experts discussed this topic at the Consultative Forum on International Security. 

A potential change to the current ‘triple lock’ process is an interesting development which has the potential to alter Ireland’s current peacekeeping abilities. 

While discussions are still in the early stages, any policy change in this area has the potential to alter Ireland’s relationship with foreign powers. I will be following this story closely over the upcoming weeks and months!