Sinn Féin is planning to introduce a Bill on military neutrality during the party's first ever private members time in the Dáil next week.
Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin TD, the party's leader in the Dáil, said the party was hoping to have a full-scale debate on neutrality.
Mr Ó Caoláin was speaking today at a press conference setting out Sinn Féin's opposition to a possible war on Iraq. He said the Government's "support for US-British war preparations makes it essential that it is called to account fully on the issue of neutrality".
Mr Ó Caoláin said the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs had refused to state what their position would be if Iraq was attacked without UN backing. He said they had not "credibly refuted reports ... that they will do whatever is required of them by the Bush administration."
Contrasting the Government's position with that of key NATO allies who are "dissenting from their [Britain/US] headlong drive to war", Mr Ó Caoláin said the Government was "supporting the preparations for war through providing facilities at Shannon" while at the same time they "wished to maintain the illusion that this State is neutral."
He said Sinn Féin wished to test the Government's commitment to neutrality by publishing a Bill which would write neutrality into the Constitution.
