Who should protect our skies?

Sir — Paul Williams’s report (Sunday Independent, April 2) that a secret bilateral pact between Ireland and the UK has allowed British fighter jets to operate over the State will, no doubt, ruffle a few feathers.

However, the suggestion that such a pact was negotiated without the input of the Air Corps is both bizarre and unacceptable. The GOC Air Corps, which is also director of military aviation, is the sole competent authority to advise the Government on matters of military aviation and national air defence.

Of course, it serves to remind us that the Air Corps still has no interceptor capability of its own.

In this regard, it is never acceptable that our Government might disown its responsibility to protect our skies, simply because it is not willing to provide the Air Corps with the means to do so. If other neutral countries can afford to have such a capability, why not us?

In some of my many submissions and articles on Irish defence issues, I have pointed out options on how the Air Corps could be given the necessary capability, including the relatively inexpensive option of leasing Gripen fighters from Sweden, as recently arranged by the Czech air force.

In the meantime, such cooperation with the UK makes sense, as a temporary measure, in the same way as both nations co-operate on search-and-rescue missions. It does not compromise our position of military neutrality any more than it might undermine the UK’s membership of Nato.

Finally, I am bemused at the idea that the British taxpayer might be footing the bill for Irish air defence. Maybe it is not such a bad idea after all! Colonel Dorcha Lee (retd),

Navan, Co Meath