Pump cash into health instead of playing absurd war games

THIS year we’re planning to spend around €1.1bn on our Defence Forces, the kind of money which, if we wanted to, would get us 12 or 13 superduper, top-of-the range Lockheed Martin F-35B fighter jets. On the other hand, we could show some restraint and sacrifice just one of those €100m-a-pop American birds of prey and spend that money on 10 French-made Leclerc AMX-56 tanks.

Now, they’re remarkably efficient beasts of war, currently playing their part in the mass slaughter in Yemen. They’re a snip at about €10m each.

Also, we should consider splashing out about €150m on up to 20 American-made Mark VI inshore patrol boats for the navy and back all that up with perhaps five or six offshore patrol vessels that’ll cost at least €500m and ensure full-sweep capabilities across our exclusive economic zone that stretches out hundreds of kilometres into the Atlantic.

That’s the kind of defence spending guaranteed to put the frighteners on Vlad the Mad Putin and any other rabid despot thinking about invading us.

WELL, actually, no. It won’t. T’would just have them all wetting themselves laughing, because there’s no amount of money (that we could afford) capable of ensuring that we here in Ireland could defend ourselves. And anyone who thinks otherwise is either taking the mick or certifiably bonkers.

Fortress Ireland is pure, undiluted fantasy. That’s why the shock-horror reaction this week to our Defence Forces admitting their manifest inability to defend Ireland was so, well, shocking. Because Ireland, as we all know, has never, ever been able to defend itself.

The very notion of being able to ward off any and all aggressors, including the superpowers is, frankly, insane.

How could we possibly defend ourselves against the Russians, with their 4,100-plus military aircraft; at least 360 warships, corvettes and frigates; more than one million active-duty fighters ready to do all sorts of damage at a moment’s notice; not to mention their nuclear-powered submarines.

Currently, we have around 11,500 men and women in the Defence Forces – army, Air Corps, navy and reserve. And the big problem is trying to hold onto to them, such is the rush to leave due to poor pay and conditions.

The Global Firepower (GFP) placed Ireland at 96 out of the 140 countries included in its 2022 review of military strengths throughout the world.

GFP declares how we’ve no tanks, no self-propelled artillery pieces and no rocket projectors. But we have 122 armoured vehicles to move soldiers to positions where, in the event of full-scale warfare, they wouldn’t have a prayer.

Any attempt to ‘tool up’ our Defence Forces, to the point where we might be able to give Vlad the Mad even a black eye, would be an egregious waste of time and money.

And the truth is, the only reason we maintain our Defence Forces at all is to guarantee internal security, particularly to keep the lid on subversive paramilitarism driven by a warped and dangerous version of nationalism. It’s not to keep the Russians out – because, without help from Uncle Sam or the Old Enemy, if Mr Putin decides to park his T-14 Armata tanks on the lawn outside Leinster House then that’s precisely what’ll happen.

Instead of a reckless pursuit of defence capabilities, we should concentrate our firepower on those things we can achieve.

Last November, orthopaedic surgeon Connor Green told the Oireachtas that the waiting list for orthopaedic surgery is damaging children, some of whom were being forced into wheelchairs despite being able to make their way around on their own two feet previously. Nobody was listening.

It wasn’t until 11-year-old Ava Cahill, from Tallaght, wept bitter tears last Sunday, in one of the most gripping, heart-breaking and emotional news reports ever broadcast by RTÉ that the Government began to pay any attention to the terrible injustices highlighted by Dr Green.

Ava wept as she told us how she needs urgent surgery to correct the alignment of her feet which are turned in as a result of spina bifida, how her feet get stuck in her trousers as she dresses and how she has to ask her mam for help.

AND this wonderful little girl is not alone – at least 56 other children with the same condition are also awaiting necessary and timely surgery. And then there’s the scoliosis patients, and all the other abandoned people across the broad spectrum of our growing healthcare waiting lists.

Instead of concerning ourselves with phantom war-games and fears about the Russian Bear outside the door, could we not just do what is well within our reach? Could we not just prevent children like Ava ever having to weep again on national television, forced to abandon their privacy because of official State neglect and cruelty?

We all know where the blame lies – with Government. People like Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste and former health minister Leo Varadkar and Coalition partner Eamon Ryan.

Shame on them.