'We do not have time to wait': Former Defence Forces chief calls for increased investment

Former chief of staff of the Defence Forces Mark Mellett with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, in Cork in 2021. He said he is a 'strong believer' in strengthening bilateral relationships with the UK and France in addition to filling our capacity gaps. Picture: Julien Bahal

Ireland “doesn’t have time to wait” to fill critical gaps in defence and needs “courageous” political leadership to drive investment, according to a former chief of staff.

Mark Mellett said the major investments required — in areas such as primary radar and critical maritime infrastructure — will take “up to five years” to come on stream and that in the meantime Ireland should strengthen bi-lateral agreements with Britain and France on defence and security.

The former chief of staff of the Defence Forces said that while there are “good signals” from Government leaders about increasing investment, time is not on our side.

Mr Mellett said “courageous leadership” is needed to make the case for substantial investment in defence and security and to change the old culture that stymied discussions on this area.

He said that while many Irish people feel Russian aggression has little to do with them, he pointed out that Ireland suffered a cyberattack from a group based in Russia, that the Irish political system had been “infiltrated” by espionage, and that there was an attempt to “significantly expand” the Russian embassy in Dublin to create a capability that was “not in our interests”.

He also referred to the “outrageous” Russian naval exercise at the edge of Irish-controlled waters in February 2022.

Mr Mellett was taking part in an online debate with other European experts regarding the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and dramatic developments in US foreign policy, with president Donald Trump re-opening relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin and reducing support for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The debate was organised by the Institute for International and European Affairs in Dublin, and coincided with a brief stop by president Zelenskyy at Shannon Airport, where he met Taoiseach Micheál Martin, while travelling to Washington DC to meet president Trump.

Mr Mellett pointed out that Irish air surveillance is “non existent” in terms of not having a primary radar system and that recommendations in the Commission on Defence Forces report in February 2022 to acquire one could take up to five years.

He also said protecting critical underwater infrastructure — data cables, electricity interconnectors and pipelines — is a “huge challenge” and that the massive infrastructure planned in offshore wind farms would be “really exposed” unless Ireland has a security umbrella for them.

He said that in the interim he is a “strong believer” in strengthening bilateral relationships with the UK and France in addition to filling our capacity gaps.

We do not have time to wait, we really need to accelerate these programmes.

“We need courageous leadership on the political side. The game has changed dramatically in the last few months.” 

As reported recently in the Irish Examiner, Ireland’s defence spend is the lowest among 38 European countries, at 0.24% of GDP, compared to the average of 1.74%.

Jakub Janda, Director of Czech foreign affairs think tank, the European Values Center for Security Policy, told the webinar that countries in central Europe are “pretty much scared” at the current situation and that the “worst fear” is that the US will fail in its negotiations with Russia, resulting in a bad deal for Ukraine.

He said there are plans to increase defence spending in the Czech Republic from 2% of GDP to 3%, and said people are in support of this.

Niels Pultz, retired Danish diplomat and former ambassador to Dublin, said his country was planning to increase spending from 2% to between 2.5-3% and said there was “very strong” public support to enhance their defence capabilities.