It may seem like an additional spend for little return value, but a €1.35 billion allocation is absolutely miserly and is way out of step with similarly sized nations in Europe. The recent Commission on the Defence Forces heard independent feedback and suggested a spend of approximately €3 billion, which is still below the spend of peer countries but would provide somewhat of an adequate budget for the missions asked of the Defence Forces. It’s not an extraordinary figure against even the Irish government budget, which exceeds €100 billion this year.
Defence isn’t just about being able to defend yourself against external, armed threats from nation states. You need to take a more holistic view. As already alluded to in the article, a relatively routine operation involving the seizure of the drug carrier in recent weeks was conducted with dangerously insufficient capability. Previously to that, it was reported that the entirety of the Irish Naval Service was tied up and not a single ship was at sea. I would not be surprised if that eventually causes serious backlash at an EU level, seeing as it’s an underfunded and largely unmonitored frontier. Going back to the drug carrier capability issues, such an occurrence has happened before. Irish peacekeeping soldiers had to wait for Dutch soldiers to turn up with TOW missiles during the Battle of At-Tiri.
There is also the issue of airspace policing. Ireland manages nearly the entirety of Atlantic airspace via Shanwick Control. In that airspace, aircraft have can closing speeds in excess of 1000 mph. Despite that, Ireland is the only country in Europe without a primary radar system outside the locality of international airports.
There are also threats that don’t manifest themselves physically. When COVID was first discovered and by and large an unknown force, the Government asked the Defence Forces how many field hospitals they could provide in the event they are needed. The answer was zero. There are also ever increasing cyber security threats, as seen with the HSE and Eirgrid. Cyber defence is still largely monitored by civilian authorities, but there is a significant degree of overlap and cooperation with the Defence Forces. A cyber attack can come from non state actors and could force public utilities, finance or any economic sector offline. That could ruin confidence in Ireland.
For a country that prides itself on neutrality, Ireland seems bizarrely out of step with the defence policies of other European countries. Take a look at Austria, Switzerland and (up until recently) Sweden. I actually had a chat with a Swedish friend about this. He was aware of it and simply didn’t get why a neutral country would act like that. In his words, the whole point of neutrality is that you are able to defend it and are not reliant on outside help.
The size of the country has nothing to do with not having basic capabilities. In addition to the above, the likes of Denmark or Finland (Russian border aside) are well able to pull this stuff off. Every single country I’ve mentioned, neutral or not, is starting to turn their focus to those issues.
Serving person here, navy and air corps are on there knees and people can’t leave quick enough
The army has clearly been let rot. Like the guards. We need an army that can pull off basic operations like taking down a ship off our coast.
We bought a couple second hand boaats from New Zeland. According to Berry, they are shite too. We will be out gunned by somali pirates at this rate.
War in Ukraine. Gas pipeline between Estonia & Finland likely blown up by Russia. Middle East kicking off. Health Service crippled by a cyberattack.
We are lucky we live where we do, but our fecklessness is going to bite us. Too much of the debate is dominated by this leftie shit about “neutrality” which no-one outside Ireland gives a fuck about, meanwhile we can’t even get a ship out to sea let alone patrol our skies or respond to cyberattacks.
The reality is that MM slammed the brakes on Coveney’s Commission on the Defence Forces by rushing a Forum on Security Policy. He wants no real change from the essential position that has festered since the British imposed limits in the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921.
The ports were returned when the Brits realised they were largely redundant and couldn’t be maintained if they didn’t land large forces to protect the hinterland. However, Air Force? None. Navy? None. Because those were conceded (in particular circumstances) and even though the state as part of the EU has outgrown those circumstances the British limitations remain.
Rather than the position of being a British protectorate we should as a mature people who aspire to full sovereignty organise the proper Defence of our air and maritime area and make our contribution to the Defence of our neighbours and EU partners.
6 comments
Well, as an ex-Army lad, I think Berry is right.
It may seem like an additional spend for little return value, but a €1.35 billion allocation is absolutely miserly and is way out of step with similarly sized nations in Europe. The recent Commission on the Defence Forces heard independent feedback and suggested a spend of approximately €3 billion, which is still below the spend of peer countries but would provide somewhat of an adequate budget for the missions asked of the Defence Forces. It’s not an extraordinary figure against even the Irish government budget, which exceeds €100 billion this year.
Defence isn’t just about being able to defend yourself against external, armed threats from nation states. You need to take a more holistic view. As already alluded to in the article, a relatively routine operation involving the seizure of the drug carrier in recent weeks was conducted with dangerously insufficient capability. Previously to that, it was reported that the entirety of the Irish Naval Service was tied up and not a single ship was at sea. I would not be surprised if that eventually causes serious backlash at an EU level, seeing as it’s an underfunded and largely unmonitored frontier. Going back to the drug carrier capability issues, such an occurrence has happened before. Irish peacekeeping soldiers had to wait for Dutch soldiers to turn up with TOW missiles during the Battle of At-Tiri.
There is also the issue of airspace policing. Ireland manages nearly the entirety of Atlantic airspace via Shanwick Control. In that airspace, aircraft have can closing speeds in excess of 1000 mph. Despite that, Ireland is the only country in Europe without a primary radar system outside the locality of international airports.
There are also threats that don’t manifest themselves physically. When COVID was first discovered and by and large an unknown force, the Government asked the Defence Forces how many field hospitals they could provide in the event they are needed. The answer was zero. There are also ever increasing cyber security threats, as seen with the HSE and Eirgrid. Cyber defence is still largely monitored by civilian authorities, but there is a significant degree of overlap and cooperation with the Defence Forces. A cyber attack can come from non state actors and could force public utilities, finance or any economic sector offline. That could ruin confidence in Ireland.
For a country that prides itself on neutrality, Ireland seems bizarrely out of step with the defence policies of other European countries. Take a look at Austria, Switzerland and (up until recently) Sweden. I actually had a chat with a Swedish friend about this. He was aware of it and simply didn’t get why a neutral country would act like that. In his words, the whole point of neutrality is that you are able to defend it and are not reliant on outside help.
The size of the country has nothing to do with not having basic capabilities. In addition to the above, the likes of Denmark or Finland (Russian border aside) are well able to pull this stuff off. Every single country I’ve mentioned, neutral or not, is starting to turn their focus to those issues.
Serving person here, navy and air corps are on there knees and people can’t leave quick enough
The army has clearly been let rot. Like the guards. We need an army that can pull off basic operations like taking down a ship off our coast.
We bought a couple second hand boaats from New Zeland. According to Berry, they are shite too. We will be out gunned by somali pirates at this rate.
War in Ukraine. Gas pipeline between Estonia & Finland likely blown up by Russia. Middle East kicking off. Health Service crippled by a cyberattack.
We are lucky we live where we do, but our fecklessness is going to bite us. Too much of the debate is dominated by this leftie shit about “neutrality” which no-one outside Ireland gives a fuck about, meanwhile we can’t even get a ship out to sea let alone patrol our skies or respond to cyberattacks.
The reality is that MM slammed the brakes on Coveney’s Commission on the Defence Forces by rushing a Forum on Security Policy. He wants no real change from the essential position that has festered since the British imposed limits in the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1921.
The ports were returned when the Brits realised they were largely redundant and couldn’t be maintained if they didn’t land large forces to protect the hinterland. However, Air Force? None. Navy? None. Because those were conceded (in particular circumstances) and even though the state as part of the EU has outgrown those circumstances the British limitations remain.
Rather than the position of being a British protectorate we should as a mature people who aspire to full sovereignty organise the proper Defence of our air and maritime area and make our contribution to the Defence of our neighbours and EU partners.
Sure we’ll be grand.
Right?
RIGHT?!?!