Analysis

Daniel Murray: Plans to replace ‘triple lock’ spark wider debate on Ireland’s neutrality

Plans are afoot to replace the mechanism that requires UN Security Council approval to deploy Irish peacekeeping troops abroad

Protesters disrupting Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s opening speech to the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy in University College Cork.Picture. John Allen

While the government’s shifting position on the ‘triple lock’ has been long signalled, the announcement by Tánaiste Micheál Martin this week that legislation would be drafted to remove the UN Security Council veto on the deployment of Irish troops abroad still caused fiery exchanges in the Dáil on Thursday.

Pearse Doherty, the Sinn Féin finance spokesman, accurately accused Martin of abandoning his own previous position of support for the triple lock, but added that the ...