Debates about neutrality during the presidential election have highlighted important questions about the formal and informal powers of the role.
The first question on foreign and defence policy posed by presenter Áine Lawlor to Heather Humphreys during the RTÉ The Week In Politics presidential debate was whether she was “the best person to safeguard our neutrality.”
The implication of the question was clear – neutrality is a fixture of Irish politics, one that should be cherished by any president, not a policy to be adopted or jettisoned by a Government as it sees fit. Humphreys responded accordingly: “We are a neutral country, and we want to remain a neutral country. And I fully, fully support our neutrality.”
Despite Humphreys swearing fealty to this tenet of Irish foreign policy, the debate revealed much about increasingly divergent foreign policy and defence positions.
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