The exit from the European Union of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in the wake of the 'Brexit' referendum result in June 2016, was proving to be a fraught and complex process.

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The Oireachtas sought to understand the impact of 'Brexit' on Ireland's Foreign, Security and Defence Policy. On 9 March 2017, as an expert witness, I pointed out that there was so little left of Ireland's foreign policy values, peacekeeping traditions, and neutrality-based peace initiatives, that new pressures from the EU to deepen defence integration, must be understood in that context.

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Despite the anticipated hostility and/or disbelief towards my evidence, I pointed out that Ireland is part of a military alliance subsumed within the EU through the Lisbon Treaty, and has obligations of aid and assistance by all means her power to any other member-state that suffers armed aggression on its territory.  Therefore, the government's pretence of so-called 'military neutrality', in either legal or political terms, is untenable.  This is the transcript of the session before the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence: