Ireland’s defence an open goal for cartels and dictators alike
WHAT is it with the Irish psyche that we don’t think we need to spend any serious money to defend ourselves?
We have been an independent nation for over 100 years now after centuries of British rule.
Yet the protection of our country and our people is not one of our top priorities.
Why that is, nobody around the world can understand.
Whether we like it or not we are seen by our European allies as the weakest link in the EU from a defence point of view – and we are a sitting duck if somebody wants to invade us.
But the lefties and the dreamers out there say we are a neutral country and why would anyone want to bother with us? All utter nonsense.
Yet the truth is we are now one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the tech capital of Europe. But more importantly a land capable of growing extensive food to feed millions and an Atlantic fishery that is the envy of most countries.
We are now living in a very
unstable world dominated by an evil dictator in Moscow, Vladimir Putin, who judging by his relentless war in Ukraine is hell-bent on disrupting the western world and the way of life that we Irish all know and love.
If Putin decided to attack Europe, do not for one second think that we will be left untouched because little old Ireland is neutral.
The truth is if the Russians sent 10,000 to 20,000 troops into Ireland in the morning we would not be able to defend ourselves and our hard won independence would be lost.
Our Defence Forces are at rock bottom due to a horrendous lack of investment over the last 20 years.
When I was a kid the army used to be a good job with a good pension but now it is treated very unfairly as a joke and that our troops sit around doing nothing all day.
The numbers in the Irish military have dropped from 9,500 to 7,500.
The Army Reserve, which used to be the swashbuckling FCA, has 1,000 to 2,000 members at the most.
If there was a national call to arms in the morning we would be in serious trouble.
We also have the most ludicrous situation where our Navy, which is supposed to patrol a sea area eight times bigger than our land mass, has gone from nine to three vessels.
Most days if we are lucky we have two vessels at sea – one for fisheries protection and the other to protect our waters and 3,000 miles of coastline.
No wonder the world’s leading drug cartels, never mind the Russians, see us as a sitting duck and are more than happy taking their chances and smuggling drops into Europe via Ireland from the cocaine factories of South America. You can rest assured for every shipment seized at least 10 others have got through so no wonder the recreational drug is for sale in abundance in every parish across the country from Malin to Mizen Head.
The Government made a big hullabaloo about the Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces. It recommended at the top end that we spend a minimum of €3billion a year on defence and over a 10-year period have at least 15 ships and a dozen fighter jets plus sonar and radar cover for our country.
The Cabinet didn’t go for it and instead opted for a level two approach which supposedly meant spending an extra €245million a year on the defence budget.
As Matt Carthy of Sinn Fein told me this week, in the first two years of the new plan we have spent €70million less each year than the State committed to.
The search to get a new radar system installed so we can police our skies is now going to take years instead of months.
There is hardly a word about installing sonar systems in our ships so the crews can monitor what is in the sea below. The whole process is an absolute joke.
The fact is we have civil servants running our Dept of Defence who know absolutely nothing about the military or warfare. They know all about Government processes and red tape.
They don’t have any sense of urgency about the risk against our country.
A lot of politicians in Ireland from President Higgins down are obsessed about neutrality and despise NATO. Yet what friends will Ireland be calling if we attack, yes you’ve guessed; Britain and the United States, two stalwarts of NATO.