IT IS FAIR to say Ireland’s Defence Forces have been starved of resources for many years now.

Spending on military capability is at the bottom of European league tables where we languish perennially welded to the bottom of the relegation zone at 0.2% of GDP.

Commitments by Government to reach for Level of Ambition 2 following the Commission on Defence report of 2021 should see spending increase in the coming years 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. Minister for Defence Helen McEntee recently announced a record (only a record in Ireland) €1.7bn investment out to 2030 encompassing funds from the National Development Plan.

The legacy of years of underspend has seen aging infrastructure and defence systems and major issues with retention of key personnel resulting in some of our Naval Service Ships being tied up and our Army withdrawing from the UN mandated Mission in Syria. The Air Corps has also seen issues with the provision of Air Traffic control services and shortages of technical staff to service aircraft.

Operationally, the impact of underinvestment in defence is evidenced on our television screens and in the newspapers when global events require a military response in support of humanitarian efforts, the rescuing of citizens caught up in global conflict the likes of which we witnessed in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021.

All too often, Ireland has gone cap in hand to other European partners for aid in providing space on their military aircraft to airlift Irish citizens to safety or to deliver Irish flagged humanitarian aid, or even to fly generators to Ireland to power Irish houses following Storm Éowyn.

Government investment has taken place in recent years to boost Ireland’s aviation capability with the delivery of two new transport aircraft this........

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