The cabinet’s welcome decision to implement the bulk of the findings of the Commission on the Defence Forces should set in train at last the qualitative transformation of this State’s defence capability. The commission’s report, published in February, pulled no punches in painting a picture of a demoralised Defence Forces, unfit for purpose and historically profoundly under-resourced, in need of reorganisation, cultural transformation, and extensive upgrading of personnel numbers, weaponry, ships and planes.
Although the current cabinet is not in a position to commit its successors to the medium-to-long-term spending plans outlined on Wednesday by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney, the perspective set out is for the defence budget to rise from €1.1 billion to at least €1.9 billion by 2028 under plans for what will be the largest military investment in the history of the State. Ireland’s spending on defence as a share of GDP is currently lowest by far in the EU, running at a fifth of Finland’s and barely half of Belgium’s.
The investment does not imply any change in the State’s general defence strategy, or its commitment to military neutrality, but it will certainly better enable participation in both European defence planning and international peace keeping operations.
The Government has committed itself by 2028 to implementing the intermediary level of ambition set out by the commission in its policy options. It defined that as “Building on current capability to address specific priority gaps in our ability to deal with an assault on Irish sovereignty and to serve in higher intensity Peace Support Operations”. The most ambitious option, “Developing full-spectrum defence capabilities to protect Ireland and its people to an extent comparable to similar sized countries in Europe”, at a potential annual cost of €3 billion, is for another day, the Government says.
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A commitment to that higher level of ambition post-2029 would enable the purchase of additional military equipment including a squadron of fighter jets, the Minister said.
As well as recruitment and changes in command structures the approved plans will see the creation of a 100-person “Joint Cyber Defence Command”, the reorganisation and upgrading of the Army Ranger Wing, the replacement of ships with the aim of having a nine-vessel Navy by the early 2030s, new armoured personnel carriers, helicopters and a long-range aircraft.
Yet it is far from clear that in attempting to address the retention crisis and setting the stage for the recruitment of another 6,000 personnel, the measures proposed to increase allowances for the lowest paid will be nearly enough to incentivise recruitment or keep vital highly- trained staff. Not least because officers and senior NCOs are not to be included.