We can’t afford to pay €70m for fighter jets

With reference to Sean O’Riordan’s articles on the Irish Air Corps, it is ludicrous to suggest that this impoverished country should find €70m for a fighter plane, and we would need three planes to keep two maintained in flight-readiness.

Costs for engineer training, for tooling-up, for maintenance, pilot training, fuel, etc, would be approximately three times the initial aircraft purchase price, spread over five years.

That would be an outlay of €610m. All of this to check up on ‘illegal’ over-flights by NATO, and US and British military aircraft. I am sure we could find a way to impose ‘fines’.