Gino Kenny
Question:2. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Defence his views on Ireland’s defence spending into the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13465/22]
View answerThursday, 10 March 2022
Questions (2)
Oral answers (8 contributions)
The armaments industry's merchants of death have seen their stock prices rise dramatically in recent weeks as the brutal invasion of Ukraine has an impact and the arms race that began in its aftermath has accelerated. The Government, unfortunately, seems to be planning to join that arms race. Presumably, it will get a boost from the meeting in Versailles today. What is the Government's position?
I will respond to the question that was put in writing. On an annual basis, the overall defence Vote group allocation is determined within the overarching budgetary framework and the approval of Dáil Éireann, having regard to the level of resources available to defence policy requirements. Thus, for 2022, the total gross allocation provided to the defence Vote group, as set out in budget 2022, was €1.107 billion, comprising €836 million for Vote 36, which is defence, and €271 million for Vote 35, which is pensions.
Capital funding allocations are also framed by the multi-annual national development plan. The White Paper on Defence, updated in 2019, highlighted the importance of capability development and the necessity for continued renewal, upgrade and acquisition of military equipment and infrastructure. To this end, the national development plan, NDP, has allocated multi-annual funding of €566 million to Defence out to 2025, with an allocation of €141 million per annum provided for 2022 and 2023 and €142 million per annum for 2024 and 2025.
Many of the military equipment projects are complex, multi-annual and have long lead-in times, so the funding certainty now provided by the NDP is welcome, as it will enable the Department and the Defence Forces to plan, prioritise and deliver on scheduled projects over the coming years.
I know what the Deputy wants me to get to rather than giving a long, drawn-out, factual answer, namely, whether we are likely to increase spending on defence on the basis of what is happening in Ukraine right now and the serious questions of security issues on the continent of Europe and, of course in parallel with that, the report that we got from the commission. I think we are likely to increase defence expenditure on the back of the commission report, primarily. Some of that will be military equipment such as ammunition and weaponry but it will also be upgrading standards within our barracks and improving training facilities, armour and so on.
To be clear, we are in favour of spending to ensure that Defence Forces personnel are not living in conditions of poverty. Only €20 million of the €500 million and €2 billion extra recommended in the report relates to that. We are in favour of doing that but we are not in favour of trying to win an arms race that cannot be won. It certainly cannot be won by Ireland. We are not in favour of increasing spending by €2 billion a year for buying an intercept capability, the acquisition of a squadron of jet combat aircraft, naval ships, etc., or even the additional €500 million a year. One simple reason for that is 2,000 homes could be built every year instead. If the Government makes the choice to give the money to these big military industries, primarily in the USA presumably, then it is making a choice to prioritise that over homes, healthcare, education or whatever else.
I do not know if the Deputy has had a chance to read the report but the recommendation is that we would increase our level of ambition around defence and defence resourcing. Specifically it asks us to improve troop protection for more demanding roles overseas. Does the Deputy disagree with that? It asks us to enhance situational awareness with primary radar capacity; significantly strengthen military intelligence and cyberdefence capabilities; to increase naval presence by essentially double crewing so that we can have ships at sea more often to do the work that it has been asked to do; or to enhance mobile and lift capacity in terms of long-range lift capacity should we have to get our people or troops out of parts of the world quickly because they are in danger. Does the Deputy disagree with any of that?
This is the practical reality of capacity improvements that the commission is asking us to consider and spend money on so that our troops are better equipped, better armed, better protected and have better training facilities and are increased in number so that they can do the job that we ask them to do.
Yes, I have read the report and I disagree with it. I disagree with close to 50 mentions of NATO, all talking about the need for interoperability and so on. That makes me suspicious. I disagree with buying a squadron of jet aircraft or buying warships.
That is not recommended.
It absolutely is recommended in paragraph 6.11. It is recommended; the Government likes to shy away from it. I also see it in a certain context, which is that a war on neutrality is being launched by the Government and by right-wing media commentators. Military spending will be ramped up and as a logical consequence of that, it is going to be used for something. Instead, we are saying that we need to copper-fasten and protect neutrality. We will bring forward a Bill to insert neutrality into our Constitution. I will be interested in the Government's response to that. We think that is a much better way of going than engaging in this arms race that simply cannot be won and the only winner of which is the big military industrial complex.
The report does not recommend that the Government moves to purchase a squadron of fighter aircraft. There are three options for the Government: level of ambition one. which is to stay as we are; level of ambition two, which is to add the kind of capacity that I just put on the record; and level of ambition three, which is to increase military capacity more significantly in line with what most countries, in fact virtually all countries of the EU, have been doing for many years. The recommendation in the report is for us to move to level of ambition two, which is what I itemised a few minutes ago. Let us not get into conspiracy theories about so-called right wing media commentators. I am not quite sure who the Deputy is talking about when he starts using that kind of ideological language. Ireland is rightly having a discussion right now, both publicly and within Government, on how we respond to changing security circumstances across the Continent of Europe, given the brutality and aggression that we are seeing coming from Russia at the moment.