Will politicians take report on ill-equipped Defence Forces seriously?

Ireland's Defence Forces have frequently been praised by politicians over the years who highlight decades of distinguished service on United Nations peacekeeping missions or the rescue of refugees in Mediterranean.

However, two recent events on the international stage have highlighted the poorly equipped nature of the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps.

The lack of any proper airlift capability saw Ireland having to hitch rides with better prepared European allies to fly citizens to safety during the western retreat from Afghanistan.

Just this month Russian plans for naval exercises in Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone once again drew attention to the limited ability to monitor what goes on in Ireland’s own backyard.

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Sure, the Russians agreed to move their drills elsewhere and the Air Corps shadowed Vladimir Putin’s ships – and those from other countries that were also keeping an eye on them.

But it was also a reminder of Ireland’s lack of radar systems that can detect Russian aircraft flying nearby with transponders switched off as has happened on a number of occasions in recent years.

In those instances Ireland has been alerted to the presence of the Russian aircraft by the British.

It is not surprising then that – as Conor Gallagher reports in our lead today – the final report of the Commission on the Defence Forces finds that Ireland's armed forces are not equipped to deal with outside threats.

It finds that there is a growing risk of Ireland’s land, sea and air being used by belligerent powers to attack its nearest neighbours and the activities of Russia and China, along with Islamic and right-wing extremists, have been named as the most severe threats to Irish security.

It recommends the total establishment strength of the Defence Forces should increase from 9,500 to 11,500, with most of the increases taking place in the Naval Service and Air Corps, it said. It also recommends renaming these branches the Navy and the Airforce.

Under its most ambitious proposals, the current €1.1 billion defence budget would increase by 200 per cent,* the Naval Service would be made up of 12 ships and the Air Corps would be equipped with long-range transport aircraft and a squadron of between 12 and 24 fighter jets to police Irish skies.

To put that in context – the Garda Síochána is currently funded to the tune of about €2 billion per year.

The Commission is calling for considerably higher than that sum to be spent on the long-neglected Defence Forces.

That is where the politicians come in.

As a neutral country military spending has never been the highest priority but there is a clear need for Ireland to have a modern, well-equipped Defence Forces.

The test of whether the Commission on Defence Forces report is being taken seriously or not will come at Budget time.

Challenges in retrofit plans

The Government announced its major Home Energy Upgrade Scheme which it hopes will see 500,000 properties retrofitted for energy efficiency by the end of the decade.

A key plank of the Climate Action Plan, the €8 billion initiative will see grants of up to half the project cost of retrofitting homes available to householders.

However, the ambitious plans will be a challenge to implement as Jack Horgan-Jones reports here and here. He outlines how the Government has been warned that "exponential" growth is needed to hit targets outlined in the retrofitting strategy.

A memo brought to Cabinet by Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan outlined how 75,000 such retrofits will have to be done on average every year in order to hit targets.

While 15,500 energy upgrades were completed last year, only 4,600 homes were given a “deep” upgrade to B2 standard in the State’s energy-rating system. Just 8,600 upgrades to B2 are expected this year.

And he reports that low-cost loans to supplement State grants for deep retrofit will not be available until the summer.

A Q&A on how the grants will work provides detail on what you need to know if you're hoping to avail of the retrofitting scheme.

Best reads

Our other front page story details how rents are surging as property availability hovers close to historic lows. Mark Paul has a report here.

The Government is under fire on the cost-of-living crisis as it develops a package of measures aimed at alleviating the situation for households. Our report is here.

Political Editor Pat Leahy outlines the first full St Patrick's Day exodus of ministers since before the pandemic.  Denis Staunton reports on how Jacob Rees-Mogg has got a new job for himself as minister for Brexit opportunities in Boris Johnson's government. This should prove entertaining.

Playbook

Solidarity-People Before Profit have a motion on increasing the minimum wage to €15 per hour which will be debated in the Dáil from 10am.

Leaders’ Questions is at noon.

There will be a debate on the Government’s plan to give people €113.50 off their electricity bills in the afternoon.

Weekly divisions are at 8.30pm

The Seanad debates a Bill brought by Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers, Mary Fitzpatrick and Erin McGreehan that would make stalking a specific criminal offence at 1pm.

The Committee on Health is discussing issues related to homecare from 9.30am.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will appear before the Committee on Finance from 1.30pm to be quizzed on spending by his Department. Don’t be surprised if the salary for the Department of Health’s secretary general Robert Watt is raised as the committee has been quite exercised on the topic in recent weeks.

The full Dáil, Seanad and Committee schedule can be found here, here and here.

*This article was amended on February 10th, 2022