This meeting has been convened for the purpose of consideration by the committee of the Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009. Apologies have been received from Deputy Dinny McGinley. I welcome the Minister for Defence, Deputy Willie O'Dea and his officials.
Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Committee Stage.
Sections 1 and 2 agreed to.
SECTION 3.
Question proposed: "That section 3 stand part of the Bill."
Is the Minister reaffirming the triple lock in this legislation?
Yes, essentially that is correct.
Is that long-term Government policy or would the Minister see merit in abandoning the triple lock in certain circumstances?
It is long-term Government policy.
On a relatively simple Bill such as this which was demanded by those with enormous concerns about the European Defence Agency, it is interesting that there has been little or no comment about it. It just shows that the people who oppose these initiatives because they simply have a word such as "defence" in the title are just scaremongering and not part of reality. I certainly hope we take part in the European Defence Agency and any other agency which will help to reduce defence spending, because probably too much is being spent, with too many inefficiencies. Perhaps the defence industry has too much say at the moment, and I hope, if Europe gets together as regards something like this, the spending and defence budgets will go down. There are Irish Amy officers who have contributed to the establishment and the whole idea of the European Defence Agency. I have met some of them in my local Army camp and their contribution to this has to be acknowledged. They have told me they were aghast at some of the claims we made in relation to this agency.
I agree with the Deputy that one of the purposes of participation in the European Defence Agency would be to actually reduce military spending and get better value for money. There was a study recently of the spending by the Pentagon on arms as opposed to the totality of money spent by the different European countries. The United States gets about 2.5 times better value for money because the market is regulated. That is obviously one of the purposes of the European Defence Agency. In a time of declining defence budgets it is very important that we get the best value for the money we spend — taxpayer's money. It has been generally recognised by people who understand this area that this participation in the EDA will achieve that.
Question put and agreed to.
Section 4 agreed to.
Title agreed to.
I remind members of the committee of the press launch at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday, 5 November in the audiovisual room on the report on women's participation in politics. I thank the Minister and his officials for attending and the members of the committee.
Bill reported without amendment.