Defence spend to 'double' to €3bn by 2028, claims minister

In its statement, the Department of Defence reiterated that the Government would increase the defence budget to €1.5bn, in 2022 prices, by 2028. File picture

An experienced junior minister has raised expectations of a major increase in defence spending, suggesting the budget could almost double to €3bn within two years.

Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs Neale Richmond made the remarks during a television debate on the pan-European station Euronews.

The intervention, just three weeks before Budget 2027, has come as a surprise in military circles, with the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (Raco) welcoming the prospect of increased funding.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, the Department of Defence did not reject, or confirm, Mr Redmond's calculation.

It said that future funding “will be determined” through the estimates process and that final decisions on the defence budget for 2027 “have not yet been made”.

Following the publication of the Commission on the Defence Forces report in 2022, the Government committed to increasing defence spending from €1.1bn to €1.5bn by 2028, based on 2022 prices.

When adjusted for inflation, that target would equate to around €1.8bn. 

Defence spending for 2026 has been set at €1.49bn.

The junior minister's comments are likely to attract attention given that defence minister Helen McEntee is also foreign affairs minister and a Fine Gael colleague of Mr Richmond, who serves as minister of State for international development and diaspora.

He was taking part in a television debate on Ireland’s presidency of the EU, including Ireland’s defence spending, with Sinn Féin TD, Rose Conway-Walsh, chair of the Oireachtas committee on defence and national security.

When presenter Méabh McMahon put it to Mr Richmond that Ireland had the lowest defence spend out of 27 EU members, he said: “We are going to double our defence spending, it will be up to €3bn a year, in the next year or two."

Asked by Ms McMahon to confirm when this would happen, he said: “In the next two years.” 

This would suggest a further €1.2bn will be allocated to defence, by 2028, over and beyond the current promised spend.

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Raco general secretary Lieutenant Colonel Conor King said: “Minister of State Richmond announces a doubling of Ireland’s defence budget on Euronews, from the current €1.49bn to €3bn ‘in the next year or two’. Hopefully this will be reflected in Budget 2027.” 

He added: “At 0.2% of GDP, and 0.3% of GNI, this is still by far the lowest in the EU. The October budget will show our EU partners how serious — or not — we are about playing our part."

In its statement, the Department of Defence reiterated that the Government would increase the defence budget to €1.5bn, in 2022 prices, by 2028.

It added: “Any future funding allocations will be determined through the Government's budgetary and estimates processes, and final decisions regarding funding levels for 2027 have not yet been made in advance of the budget on October 6 next.”