The Defence Forces are unfit for purpose. They are in need of a fundamental reorganisation and extensive upgrading of manpower numbers and weaponry, ships and planes – a qualitative overhaul to face up to the challenges of the modern world and Ireland's secure place in it. The impressive and comprehensive report published yesterday by the Commission on the Defence Forces, drawing on over 1,000 interviews and submissions and its own national and international expertise, and reflecting what it says is "a strong sense of crisis in the Defence Forces", is an important call to public engagement in a national debate about why we need defence forces, and how we can resource them to our desired level of ambition.
The report sets out three potential "levels of ambition", ranging from the continuation of "business as usual" to what would not appear to be a grandiose or unreasonable aim "of developing full spectrum defence capabilities to protect Ireland and its people to an extent comparable to similar sized countries in Europe". The former would "leave this country unable to meet its desired level of military deployment overseas, weak on aid to the civil power capabilities and, most importantly, without a credible military capability to protect Ireland, its people and its resources for any sustained period."
The Government will not be surprised by the report’s picture of historic under-resourcing; its purpose in commissioning it was to provide political leverage for such a reappraisal, probably the only way to a break with historic incrementalism. Ireland’s spending on defence as a share of GDP is lowest by far in the EU, running at a fifth of Finland’s and barely half of Belgium’s. The result is not a leaner more efficient force, but one that lacks the capacity to project air or sea power, and that struggles with understaffing and retention.
The report’s shopping list is a measure of the scale of the challenge faced by the Government: commitment to level-three ambition would require a budget increase of 200 per cent* to €1.1 billion, needed to fund at least three new naval ships and multiple new crews, armoured personnel carriers, anti-drone capabilities and upgraded air and coastal defence systems for the Army, and for the Air Corps at least two additional medium-lift helicopters, a primary radar system, long-range transport aircraft and a squadron of between 12 and 24 fighter jets to police Irish skies. An entirely new cyber command is also called for.
Although its terms of reference do not allow specific recommendations on pay levels, a primary cause of retention problems, the report makes clear that the issue, as well as internal working conditions and culture, need to be addressed urgently. Ultimately, the question comes down to this: do we want a defence capability? And are we prepared to pay for it?
*This article was amended on February 10th, 2022