A while back I talked to 2 of local TDs about Irish National Security. They were government TDs, and afterwards I felt I should talk to the 2 TDs from the opposition. A little delayed getting that up, but this is how that went. 1/15 https://x.com/SK_00001/status/...
I met one TDs in his constituency clinics, the other had to be a phone call (first time TD seems to still be getting established). I talked about a personal matter first, and then moved on to the security & defence one. 2/15
The message was: Europe is in the middle of a security crisis, countries are ramping up to improve defence capabilities. Across Europe there is regular talk about the hybrid conflict that has already begun, and the potential for open conflict with Russia in 3-5 years. 3/15
But I do not see the same urgency or recognition of the threat in Ireland. We have had some talk about increased spend eventually, but not the urgency the rest of Europe has. And, Ireland and Malta are the only countries in Europe without a full time defence minister. 4/15
Ireland is under threat, it has already been attacked (HSE 2021). And the social services people want, run on taxes on an economy, that depends on infrastructure we cannot protect. So why is this not being prioritised? 5/15
The first TD I met was the Sinn Fein one. The discussion was good but rather worrying. He was honest and open with me. As I have heard before they don't focus on this, as it is not what people come to their door about. Unfortunately things then went down hill... 6/15
He did not accept the level of the threat. He repeated nonsense about NATO expansion, and Russia having been promised it would not happen. I had to point out this was a lie, and it is easy to find the video of Gorbachev saying this was not true. 7/15
He made comments about expansion into Russia's backyard and their concerns. I did say that it was rather odd considering his party, that he would say large countries should get to dictate to their small neighbours what they should do. He sort of accepted that point 8/15
There was a brief discussion about how much this involved Ireland, but I pointed out his office has 2 Palestinian flags in it, but there aren't 100,000 Palestinians in Ireland because of Russian aggression. 9/15
We finished with him saying he would meet the SF foreign affairs guy and he would talk to him. At the very least I guess he can say that - yes, people are coming to my clinics with National/European security stuff. It is on the radar so to speak. 10/15
The new Labour TD gave the better response. He did say this is not a thing he has had raised with him before. But he listened and he asked - "what would you have me do"? There I said what was needed was to engage with this seriously. 11/15
The job of the opposition is to oppose. But there are areas where gov and opposition must proceed together. I talked about Sweden where all parities are in agreement that defence and security needs to be prioritised. This TD did listen, and said he would talk to his party. 12/15
The good: neutrality and triple lock did not come up. The bad: one TD has a head full of Russian nonsense, the other is a school teacher, totally green and does not seem to have ever thought about defence before I raised it with him. 13/15
As before the discussions were good. TD are real people, they take their roles seriously, they will engage. However despite being members of the national parliament, their focus is VERY local issues. 14/15
So it is important that people come in and say the defence of Ireland is important. And we want both government and opposition to work on this urgently because as the rest of Europe has realised - we may already be out of time. 15/15
@SK_00001 Really interesting thread. The security discussion should include emergency preparedness given how storms are increasingly threatening heat, hot water, services. Protecting infrastructure from threats is a common sense issue
@pdotpushkin I wish I had my English language copies of this with me when I met them but they arrived a week or two later
@SK_00001 Considering that Irish/EU governments have been fully supporting the murder of Russian speaking Ukrainians by the U.S./UK installed Russia hating Extremist regime in Kyiv since 2014 making EU states legitimate targets I have to say that Russia has shown amazing restraint so far.
@SK_00001 Well done for progressing the issue with local TD's. What sticks out is the attitude of @ThomasGouldSF & @sinnfeinireland as a whole. They have no interest in National Security, and when the mask slips they still see us as the "Free State". In essence the enemy within.
@SK_00001 Very interesting Sk we are so behind defence wise, the ironic thing is some people thing we spend lots of money, on our defence forces which we don’t, unfortunately we need basic stuff asap
@SK_00001 I have a theory on SF’s stance. While many feel Ireland can’t be neutral in defence liberal democracy. SF are definitely not neutral in defence of Socialist Republics elsewhere, everyone in a neutral country can be a mercenary. If Ireland starts taking sides, that ends
@SK_00001 Muppet