establishment of the network in March<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe officers will be deployed to Washington DC, London and Paris \u2013 which have been identified as the best locations to enhance defence links with countries that the government has identified as Ireland\u2019s most important strategic partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new programme will begin on a pilot basis with the placement of key personnel at the three embassies.<\/p>\n
This morning the Department of Defence announced the appointments and McEntee described it as a \u201csignificant milestone in strengthening Ireland\u2019s international defence engagement\u201d.<\/p>\n
The three Defence Forces officers are expected to take up their appointments this autumn.<\/p>\n
The move delivers on a key recommendation of the Commission on the Defence Forces, which called for the immediate establishment of a Defence Attach\u00e9 network to strengthen international liaison and military-to-military engagement.<\/p>\n
As part of their role, the attach\u00e9s will support defence diplomacy, build relationships with partner armed forces, enhance strategic engagement, and provide advice on defence and security matters, while working closely with Ireland\u2019s diplomatic network overseas.<\/p>\n
Ireland generally does not have military representatives abroad. There are army officers based at key locations such as the European Union, Nato and the United Nations, but this is the first adoption of the defence attach\u00e9 network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sources have said there was some resistance behind the scenes due to Ireland\u2019s military neutral status. It is understood that officials wished for the role to be that of a civilian attach\u00e9.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na has a number of liaison officers deployed to South America, Britain, the EU and North America. They work with Irish diplomats in embassies and liaise with the local governments and law enforcement agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an important moment in Irish Defence diplomacy. I am confident that those appointed will bring significant added value to their roles and that, as an integral part of the Irish diplomatic network, the new Defence Attach\u00e9 network delivers benefits for the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. They will also be valuable additions to the diplomatic missions in which they will be based,\u201d the minister said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Rossa Mulcahy, also welcomed the appointments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking directly with our Ambassadors and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and supporting the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence, the new Attach\u00e9s will strengthen collaboration across Ireland\u2019s diplomatic network and play a vital role in fostering cooperation, enhancing mutual understanding, and advancing Ireland\u2019s defence and security interests overseas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have every confidence they will represent the Defence Forces and the State with distinction while building enduring relationships that will benefit Ireland\u2019s defence capabilities for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niall O’Connor IRELAND\u2019S FIRST DEFENCE attach\u00e9s have been appointed to France, Britain and the United States in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,169870,18,13,14,6620,6,19,17,261243,11,12,15,16,261244,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-618674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-defence-attache","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-foreign-policy","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-diplomacy","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-military-diplomacy","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117033335485608343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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