0.2% of GDP<\/a> (or 0.3% of GNI) allocated to defence.<\/p>\nOn the British navy providing sea and air security (outside Ireland\u2019s territorial waters), Ms Kallas said: \u201cWell, of course, we know that Ireland is a neutral country, and that is why also the defence spending has been lower, and it is also clear that you [Ireland] have much better neighbours than some of the other European countries have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about Ireland\u2019s contribution to maritime security and the protection of cables connecting North America and EU passing through Irish waters, Ms Kallas said: \u201cWe will discuss maritime security, and as you say, it is a great concern for all of us because there are cables that are underneath the sea and that are really affecting the everyday lives of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked by the Brussels media about Ireland\u2019s budget, Ms McEntee said: \u201cWhat I can assure people is that our funding will continue to increase. We have increased our budget by 43% in the last four years alone, and we are having discussions as we speak about our budget [for 2027].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the Royal Navy presence, she said: \u201cI won\u2019t get into security details, but what I can say is we have a significant security operation in place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said Ireland was \u201cno different\u201d from any other EU country in having the cooperation of other member states while holding the presidency.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, after the meetings were concluded, the Irish Examiner asked Ms McEntee about the European media highlighting Ireland\u2019s defence budget and what message she would bring back to her Cabinet colleagues.<\/p>\n
The minister said: \u201cThe understanding of the Government is clear, that in the past we have not contributed to defence as much as we should have, I think that has changed, we increased our defence contribution by 43% in the last four years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she was getting into budget negotiations and that her ambition \u2014 and of her Government colleagues \u2014 was to \u201cincrease that further\u201d.<\/p>\n
Government investment in recent years is based on the second of three recommendations suggested by the Commission on Defence Forces, published in February 2022.<\/p>\n
These were options made before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which caused a seismic shift in defence spending in most EU states and resulted in two neutral countries, Sweden and Finland, joining Nato.<\/p>\n
In response to the commission, the Government went for the middle investment option. This would see the defence budget rise from \u20ac1.1bn in 2022 to \u20ac1.5bn, in 2022 prices, by 2028 (circa \u20ac1.8bn).<\/p>\n
The defence budget reached \u20ac1.49bn this year. But as a percentage of GNI or GNP, the spend remains stuck at around 0.3% \u2014 when most of Europe has committed to 5% in a 10-year timeframe.<\/p>\n
Some sources fear Budget 2027 will see a continuation of the annual increases of recent years, in the region of \u20ac100m-\u20ac140m.<\/p>\n
Various security sources the Irish Examiner spoke to this week, all said that Tuesday was deeply embarrassing for Ireland, both politically within the EU and, via the media, with much of the EU populace.<\/p>\n
This issue is not going to go away.<\/p>\n
Next weekend we have the official visit of US president Donald Trump and, in the months after, further EU meetings. They will culminate in what will be the biggest policing and security event in Ireland\u2019s presidency, the European Political Community, in Dublin\u2019s Docklands, in November.<\/p>\n
This will see not only EU leaders gathering, but many others, including the UK prime minister and, it\u2019s expected, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
Given the apparent escalation in security attacks in Europe, the security and military assistance from neighbouring countries could be even more considerable then.<\/p>\n
What the European media highlighted on Tuesday exposes a deep contradiction in Ireland\u2019s foreign and defence policies: How can a militarily neutral country rely on the military assets of another country \u2014 a Nato and non-EU state \u2014 to provide security for it?<\/p>\n
The minister and the Department of Defence are reluctant to enter into any discussions about this issue, not least during the presidency.<\/p>\n
But Ireland has to, at some stage, have an honest conversation with itself.<\/p>\n
If Ireland is militarily neutral, then it follows that we need our own military assets and personnel to enforce it and protect the country and its critical maritime infrastructure \u2014 including gas pipelines, electricity interconnectors, cables, and ports \u2014 and critical land infrastructure, including the global tech sector and data centres.<\/p>\n
If we don\u2019t have said military assets or personnel \u2014 which we don\u2019t \u2014 then we need the military help of neighbours.<\/p>\n
And if we do need military assistance from abroad, could Ireland not have an open political debate \u2014 a calm, rational and informed one \u2014 about that relationship and how we protect the country.<\/p>\n
If that relationship requires a change to the policy of military neutrality, and\/or the constitutional prohibition on joining an EU military alliance, are we not mature enough to examine that?<\/p>\n
There have been polls over the years showing strong majority support among Irish people for neutrality; there have also been polls, including ones by Eurobarometer, that suggest most Irish people want a deepening of EU defence and security.<\/p>\n
As any Yes Minister fans will tell you, the answer in a survey all depends on the question and the context set by preceding questions.<\/p>\n
Ireland has had citizens\u2019 assemblies on various complicated issues, most recently on the drugs issue.<\/p>\n
A similar one on Irish foreign and security policy \u2014 including neutrality \u2014 could be an option to deal with this issue. Such a body could start by identifying what Ireland\u2019s strategic interests and assets and critical infrastructure are, what are purely domestic and what are shared with the EU, and how we should protect them.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the Government could immediately establish a full-time minister of defence.<\/p>\n
Having it as an add-on to a very busy minister of foreign affairs sends an obvious message, domestically, and, crucially, to our EU partners.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting that, currently, Ireland has two education ministers and two finance ministers.<\/p>\n
The Commission on Defence Forces and a sister body \u2014 the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland (September 2018) \u2014 placed huge importance on improving Ireland\u2019s intelligence<\/a> and security capabilities. This included powers, budgets, resources, laws, and structures.<\/p>\nOne of the policing commission\u2019s key recommendations was to have a high-level intelligence co-ordinating body, to bring together intelligence from various agencies, co-ordinate their activities and provide them with priorities. A full-time director would directly advise the Taoiseach.<\/p>\n
A National Security Analysis Centre (NSAC) was set up, but without proper premises. As for the director, it was added on to the work of a very busy assistant secretary.<\/p>\n
NSAC did not gain the confidence of the intelligence agencies. It failed to publish Ireland\u2019s first national security strategy, supposed to cover 2020-2025. NSAC has since been downgraded to a civil service secretariat.<\/p>\n
Asked if the penny was dropping in the Cabinet and among senior civil servants of the worsening security crisis in Europe and the need to give national security greater priority, one experienced source told the Irish Examiner: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to know. The conversations are certainly more open than in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cExternal pressure is likely to be more impactful than domestic concerns. But a mile of talk and intentions isn\u2019t worth an inch of action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Being embarrassed by international media at a high-profile event during Ireland\u2019s EU presidency is not what the Government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74289,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-616303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-eu-presidency","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Helen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5218663_16_articleinline_GettyImages-2292615047_1_.jpg\" "\\"Helen")
Helen McEntee and Kaja Kallas take part in a joint press conference at Druids Glen, Co Wicklow. The EU on September 2 said it had summoned Russia’s top diplomat as it eyed sanctions after a drone incident in Germany that the bloc’s foreign policy chief said bore the marks of ‘state-sponsored terrorism’. Picture: Paul Faith\/AFP<\/p>\n