{"id":573224,"date":"2026-08-03T11:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/573224\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T11:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:32:09","slug":"is-irelands-unprotected-ocean-the-weak-link-in-european-defence-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/573224\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Ireland\u2019s unprotected ocean the weak link in European defence? | Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a long time, Ireland<\/a> paid little attention to its surrounding seas, a vast maritime area, 10 times the size of the land.<\/p>\n

Alarm bells began ringing only when a Russian spy ship, the Yantar, began visiting Irish waters. The vessel, ostensibly a research ship, is believed to be capable of attaching spy equipment to undersea cables and has advertised its presence. While loitering in the Irish Sea in 2024<\/a>, the ship remained over a gas pipeline connecting Ireland and the UK and turned on its transponder, as if broadcasting its proximity to critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Irish officials have also noticed a rise in Russian shadow fleet vessels traversing the north Atlantic in order to circumvent British and French waters, where controls have been stepped up.<\/a><\/p>\n

For officials, the Russian presence in or near Irish waters underscores that Ireland, which has long viewed itself as protected by geography \u2013 out of sight and out of mind \u2013 is really on the frontline.<\/p>\n

And the threat is broad. Irish waters are busy: dense with shipping lanes, gas pipelines and transatlantic internet cables, which helped lure US tech companies to make Ireland their European headquarters. Nearly 75% of transatlantic subsea cables pass through or close to Ireland\u2019s exclusive economic zone<\/a>, the 200-nautical mile space where it has sovereign rights over natural resources, which is seven times greater than the land mass. It has more limited jurisdiction over an even broader area.<\/p>\n

Map of Ireland and Britain showing Ireland\u2019s exclusive economic zone. <\/a><\/p>\n

When Ireland took charge of the EU\u2019s rotating presidency last month, it had a message. While its totemic neutrality is not up for debate, the days of Ireland\u2019s slumber on defence are over. Security is listed as a priority<\/a> of Ireland\u2019s six months chairing the Council of the EU.<\/p>\n

Ireland would be working with other European nations \u201con shared objectives and priorities in defending our critical infrastructure, and making sure that we are focused on security more broadly\u201d, Ireland\u2019s foreign minister, Helen McEntee, told reporters last month. \u201cWe are not immune to any threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sounds unremarkable, but signals a reassessment of Ireland\u2019s approach to defence. In February, McEntee published Ireland\u2019s first ever maritime strategy, which aims to end Ireland\u2019s \u201csea blindness\u201d \u2013 the sense that security was purely about the land. Officially, it aims to ensure Ireland can defend its maritime domain, including critical undersea infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are not immune to any threat,\u2019 said Helen McEntee, the foreign minister, who has published Ireland\u2019s first maritime strategy. Photograph: Bryan Meade\/EPA<\/p>\n

There is still a long way to go. \u201cWe are dependent on the goodwill of friends and neighbours,\u201d said the retired Irish naval officer Caoimh\u00edn Mac Unfraidh. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t always the case and it won\u2019t always be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a 29-year career in the Irish Naval Service, Mac Unfraidh commanded two ships, the L\u00c9 Orla and the L\u00c9 Eithne. Both were decommissioned in 2022 along with a third vessel.<\/p>\n

He described the maritime strategy as \u201ca good effort\u201d, but feared spending remained \u201cminimalist\u201d, despite pledges for sonar and radar equipment. \u201cWhat is needed is that sort of overarching vision for a maritime nation to have a navy worthy of its name. And that means new ships, with new capabilities, recruitment campaigns and the establishment of several more bases.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In 2025, Ireland\u2019s government confirmed only two ships were in operation out of a fleet of eight, partly because of a staffing crisis.<\/p>\n

The broader neglect of the military was highlighted earlier this month, when Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned down an offer from Dublin to send 27 light-armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine. \u201cThe cost of restoring them is higher than the value they would provide,\u201d the Ukrainian president said.<\/p>\n

Irish government officials stress that Ireland has pledged \u20ac1.7bn (\u00a31.4bn) in defence capital spending for 2026-30, a 55% increase on the previous period. And the government believes it has turned a corner on naval recruitment, with an increase in new joiners leading to a 12% increase in personnel in 2025, compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n

But Ireland remains the lowest defence spender in the EU, at a time when other countries are sharply increasing budgets. In 2024, Ireland spent just 0.2% of its gross domestic product on defence, far behind the 1.3% EU average and notably lower than neutral Austria (0.6%).<\/p>\n

EU officials have offered sotto voce criticism. The former European Commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager,<\/a> who was responsible for tech policy, warned Ireland in 2022 that it had a responsibility<\/a> for the maritime zone: \u201cNo one can be a weak link of our chain of protection.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025 a former Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, excoriated Ireland\u2019s then president Michael Higgins after he criticised Nato\u2019s \u201cappalling\u201d appeal for higher spending in response to the Russian threat. \u201cDo these people have any sense of self-awareness, their privileged geography or the appropriateness of even commenting as the beneficiary of implicit Nato<\/a> security?\u201d Ilves said.<\/p>\n

Members of the Irish navy form a guard of honour for the arrival of Pope Francis in Dublin, August 2018. The Irish Naval Service was formed in 1946. Photograph: Dylan Martinez\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Despite being an island nation, the sea was nobody\u2019s political priority. Ireland gained independence in 1922, but the British retained control of Irish waters until 1938. Ireland did not have a fully fledged navy until 1946.<\/p>\n

Eoin McNamara, at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, observes: \u201cNational security tends to be very divisive politically in Ireland, without bringing a whole lot of political reward, aka votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the Nato-critical leftwinger Catherine Connolly won a landslide<\/a> to become Ireland\u2019s president. During her campaign she compared Germany\u2019s military spending to the 1930s<\/a> and said she was concerned about arms spending<\/a> and the \u201cmilitarisation\u201d of the EU.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, people see the cost of living, housing and immigration as the most important issues facing Ireland, according to a recent poll from More in Common<\/a>. Foreign and security issues were barely on the radar: 5% cited the war in Ukraine and 4% defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of momentum from public opinion to focus on these bread-and-butter domestic issues,\u201d McNamara said. Defence, he said, was \u201cthe insurance policy of the economy\u201d, alluding to the profound economic shock posed by disruption to internet or energy cables. \u201cI don\u2019t think that has reached public opinion yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a long time, Ireland paid little attention to its surrounding seas, a vast maritime area, 10 times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-573224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}