Sir, - The Taoiseach’s recent suggestion that concerns about Irish security amount to “a lot of noise” is troubling. What is being dismissed is a sustained and well-informed concern among defence professionals, security analysts and many citizens that Ireland has presided over a long decline in its ability to protect itself.
Over decades, strategic vulnerability has been normalised. The Defence Forces are chronically under-resourced, undermanned and overstretched. Core capabilities have never been developed and so the State struggles to meet even basic sovereign responsibilities. This is not a sudden crisis but the predictable outcome of long-term political inaction and the consistent treatment of defence as a secondary, even tertiary, concern.
That lack of seriousness is visible at the highest level. At a time of acute international instability, Ireland still does not have a dedicated, full-time Minister for Defence. Defence remains an adjunct portfolio, signalling that it is not regarded as a matter requiring focused political leadership, even as risks increase.
If the Department of Health had failed the health system to the same degree the Department of Defence has failed the Defence Forces, there would be no functioning GP service and no cancer care. Such failure would rightly be unacceptable. Yet in defence, chronic underperformance has been tolerated and repeatedly explained away. The absence of catastrophe is mistaken for safety. In reality, it is little more than luck.
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Neutrality is often cited in defence of this approach, but neutrality is not a substitute for capability. It is a policy choice that must be actively upheld and practiced, not a brand used to excuse underinvestment. Sovereignty without the means to protect it is sovereignty in name only.
The Taoiseach has also suggested calling on neighbours for assistance is reasonable. Occasional cooperation between states is normal. Reliance is not. Ireland has reached a point where external support is routine rather than exceptional. No neighbour welcomes being called upon repeatedly, particularly when it is widely understood the State seeking help has the means to provide for itself but has chosen not to.
This reality is reflected in the National Development Plan, where defence spending has increased slightly but remains marginal and not nearly commensurate with the level of need. Decades of underinvestment and short-term savings have now come home to bite. Ireland has built a modern economy and a high standard of living while assuming security would take care of itself. It will not. Like neglected flood defences, security and defence capabilities are contingency measures that appear expendable until the moment they fail. When they do, the cost of inaction far exceeds what timely investment would ever have required.
Defence may not win votes, but its neglect carries consequences far more serious than any short-term political calculation. Ireland and the Irish public deserve better. - Yours, etc.,
MARK PRENDERGAST
Ratoath,
Co Meath
