I just want to register my concern about the new budget line for the common foreign and security policy. Although the proposals to allocate EU funding for the development of a military aircraft were very narrowly defeated in the Committee on Budgets, it is a very clear and alarming indication of what is to come. Articles in the Maastricht Treaty were cited as justification.

During the referendum campaign on Maastricht in Ireland I and my party warned that the Treaty would be used to justify military cooperation and EU armaments' development. This is what we feel is happening with this new budget line. Like the budget line for the common foreign and security policy, the proposals claim that the aircraft was needed mostly for humanitarian missions. But if this were so it would be just as easy to buy cargo aircraft. Why go for a military aircraft?

The proposals and also the fact that there is a new budget line are clearly moving in the direction of an EU-funded arms industry. Coming from a neutral country, we are concerned about this, and today's headline about an EU army with the British also taking part through the Western European Union shows that we are going down a serious road. To argue on humanitarian grounds is totally unjustified. It is a red herring. This is not concerned with humanitarian grounds. It is the military industry that is pushing for this and also the people who want a European army. It is something we will very strongly oppose and people should think very carefully what the implications of the budget are when they come to vote on things like this.