Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 30 November 2023
269. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence the titles of the White Papers published by his Department from 2008 to date; if he will provide online links to these papers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52975/23]
View answerThe current White Paper on Defence, which was approved by the Government in July 2015, provides the strategic and comprehensive defence policy framework for the period up to 2025. The previous White Paper on Defence, which was published in 2000, was the first such White Paper on defence in the history of this State.
In 2013, given the passage of time and significant changes in the security environment which had seen the emergence of new and complex transnational threats, the Government initiated the preparation of a new White Paper through the publication of a first ever Green Paper on Defence. This set out a range of policy questions and sought submissions on Ireland’s future defence policy requirements. In addition to consideration of 122 written submissions received in response to the Green Paper, a process of widespread consultation was undertaken in the development of the current White Paper.
The White Paper on Defence published in 2015 set out the Government intention to put in place a new fixed cycle of defence reviews. Such reviews are common practice internationally and give reassurance that policy remains up to date and relevant to changing future circumstances.
The White Paper set out that every three years there will be a White Paper update that would consider progress made up to that time and consider any revisions required with each alternative three-year review in the cycle being more comprehensive in nature and to be styled a Strategic Defence Review.
The first of these reviews, the White Paper Update was published in 2019. The second of these reviews, the Strategic Defence Review stage, was due to commence in 2021. With the establishment of the independent Commission on the Defence Forces by Government in December 2020, a decision was taken to pause commencing the Strategic Defence Review until the Commission on the Defence Forces had completed their report and Government had been given time to consider the report.
Following detailed consideration of the Commission Report the Minister for Defence brought to Government a High Level Action Plan and a Memo for Government which were approved on July 12th last year. Part of the High Level Action Plan was the progression of a number of early actions one of these being the commencement of the Strategic Defence Review.
The first stage of this review has commenced with the preparation of a revised security environment assessment (SEA) which is currently being conducted by an interdepartmental working group and will address the significant security environment changes since the invasion of Ukraine. A fresh consideration of the implications of this assessment for overall policy requirements, associated tasks, capability development and resourcing will then be completed. The security environment assessment should be completed by the end of this year and will inform the Strategic Defence Review.
The information requested by the Deputy in relation to White Papers published by my Department from 2008 to date, including links to same are set out in the table below.
|
Year |
Name |
Link to Paper |
|
2013 |
Green Paper on Defence 2013 |
www.gov.ie/en/publication/560177-green-paper-on-defence-2013/ |
|
2015 |
White Paper on Defence 2015 |
www.gov.ie/en/publication/1b0dc6-white-paper-on-defence/ |
|
2019 |
White Paper on Defence Update 2019 |
www.gov.ie/en/publication/a519cf-white-paper-on-defence-update-2019/ |
