INDEPENDENT IRELAND: RELIANCE ON BRITISH WARSHIP FOR EU DEFENCE SUMMIT EXPOSES DECADES OF NEGLECT OF IRELAND'S DEFENCE FORCES
Wednesday 02nd September 2026, 17:01pm
Independent Ireland's Defence Spokesperson, Cllr Bill Clear, has described Ireland's need to request a British Royal Navy warship to assist with security during the EU Defence Ministers' meeting in Wicklow as a "national embarrassment" and evidence of decades of underinvestment in Ireland's Defence Forces.
Irish authorities requested Royal Navy assistance for the meeting, with a British warship and a Merlin anti-submarine helicopter deployed off the Wicklow coast.
Cllr Clear said:
"More than 100 years after independence, and with one of the most successful economies in Europe, Ireland should be capable of providing basic protection for a major international defence summit taking place on our own soil.
"Instead, we had to ask Britain to provide a warship because we do not possess the necessary capability ourselves.
"International defence cooperation is normal and necessary. Having no realistic alternative but to depend on another country is something entirely different.
"This is not a criticism of the Royal Navy or Irish Defence Forces.The responsibility lies squarely with successive Irish governments that have allowed our Defence Forces to fall so far behind."
Cllr Clear said the Commission on the Defence Forces delivered its report in February 2022, warning of serious capability and personnel deficiencies.
"Four and a half years later, we are still talking about transformation plans while fundamental capability gaps remain.
"Our Naval Service is supposed to defend our territorial seas, conduct maritime surveillance and protect our marine assets. Yet when Ireland hosted the defence ministers of Europe, we needed another country's navy to help protect them.
"That should be a wake-up call."
Cllr Clear also questioned the Government's priorities after announcing €10 million towards military training centres in Ukraine while Ireland continues to have significant deficiencies in its own defence capabilities.
"I believe Ireland should continue to stand with the Ukrainian people. But supporting Ukraine and properly defending Ireland are not mutually exclusive.
"We can find millions for defence-related projects overseas while our own Defence Forces remain without capabilities that a sovereign European state should reasonably possess.
"Our soldiers, sailors and aircrew have consistently served this country with distinction. They are not the problem. The failure has been political.
"Successive governments have failed to provide them with the personnel, equipment and investment necessary to do the job we ask of them.
"Ireland needs a properly funded Defence Forces capable of protecting our airspace, our territorial waters, our subsea infrastructure and ultimately our sovereignty.
"We should cooperate with our neighbours, but Ireland cannot continue outsourcing fundamental elements of its own national security."
