Ireland spends less of GDP on defence forces than Luxembourg

The minister with responsibility for defence, Paul Kehoe, says he is happy with the amount of money being put into the Defence Forces, despite Ireland having the smallest percentage investment of its gross domestic product (GDP) in its military of any country in Europe.

Mr Kehoe said spending on defence has risen from €898m in 2015 to €905m this year, but according to statistics this is just 0.5% of GDP, compared to the 0.9% spent in 2005.

Even Luxembourg, which is smaller than Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s home county of Mayo, spends 0.6% of its GDP on defence.