Freeloading as a security policy

Defence expenditure

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott — The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.

Sat May 25 2024 - 00:06

Sir, – I’d agree with the point made by Enda Scanlon (Letters, May 24th) that we need not worry much about defence expenditure as long as we can get a Nato member to cover it for free.

Being joined to one by a land border of several hundred miles which is often hard to identify makes any attack on this small island tantamount to invading a Nato country. Any discussions of Irish unity should entail joining that alliance or, alternatively but less credibly, a massive increase in military expenditure. Other ideas of a united Ireland are, to my mind literally, indefensible. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN O’BRIEN,

Kinsale,