{"id":217884,"date":"2025-06-27T06:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T06:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/217884\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T06:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T06:13:18","slug":"ireland-backs-e150bn-defence-plan-as-eu-moves-to-rearm-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/217884\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland backs \u20ac150bn defence plan as EU moves to rearm \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland is to sign up to a major new EU defence initiative that will allow member states to jointly procure military equipment as the bloc seeks to rapidly rearm in the face of Russian<\/a> aggression.<\/p>\n

The EU regulation, known as Security Action for Europe (Safe), relaxes procurement rules for defence purchases and allows countries to work together to develop and acquire military capacities.<\/p>\n

The Government believes becoming a member will allow Ireland to secure military equipment at a lower cost and faster pace \u2013 in some cases up to two years earlier than under existing procurement arrangements. <\/p>\n

The Safe initiative also makes \u20ac150 billion available to member states, in the form of low-interest, long-term loans, to rapidly increase defence spending amid doubts over the United States\u2019s future commitment to European security.<\/p>\n

The decision to sign up to the Safe regulation represents a significant step towards closer co-operation between Ireland and the EU on defence issues. <\/p>\n

It is likely to draw significant criticism from pro-neutrality<\/a> campaigners who will view it as further erosion of Ireland\u2019s non-aligned status within Europe.<\/p>\n

During previous discussions on the proposals, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said joint defence procurement is about achieving value for money and would have no impact on neutrality.<\/p>\n

The Safe initiative is a core pillar of the European Commission\u2019s ReArm Europe Plan, which aims to inject \u20ac800 billion into the EU\u2019s defence industry over the coming years.<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris is expected to announce the decision to join Safe today.<\/p>\n

Ireland will use its membership of the plan to focus on acquiring artillery, cyber and air defence systems as well as replacing the Army\u2019s fleet of armoured personnel carriers.<\/p>\n

Other projects include the purchase of ammunition, artillery, ground combat capabilities and drones.<\/p>\n

Under Safe, Ireland will partner with other countries to purchase this equipment, resulting in cost savings. In some cases, the equipment will be partially financed by EU loans obtained by the partner countries.<\/p>\n

For example, if Germany is acquiring a new batch of artillery shells, it will be able to amend its order to include Ireland as a partner. This would allow Ireland to obtain a small portion of the shells at a much lower price than if it had ordered them alone.<\/p>\n

Safe\u2019s goal is two-fold; to build up the military capabilities of member states and to support a native EU defence industry independent of the United States.<\/p>\n

In order to qualify for Safe support, 65 per cent of the value of purchases must be from an EU country or Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris is expected to argue that joining Safe will allow Ireland to speed up the acquisition of capabilities such as air defence and sonar systems, two priority spending areas for the Government.<\/p>\n

He said he is determined to \u201cprovide for the development of a full spectrum of Defence Force Capabilities that will bring Ireland in line with other similar-sized European countries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have agreed, therefore, that the Department of Defence should leverage the common procurement opportunities offered under the Safe Regulation as much as possible to progress delivery of Ireland\u2019s defence capabilities needs as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is to sign up to a major new EU defence initiative that will allow member states to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[41229,2000,299,5187,2557,1699,86299,681,7160],"class_list":{"0":"post-217884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-defence-forces","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-commission","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-irish-neutrality","15":"tag-micheal-martin","16":"tag-simon-harris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114753857423054164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}