Dorcha Lee: While honouring our past, we must be prepared to defend our future

With the EU set to move to much higher levels of defence spending, our rise in funding will need to be maintained, writes Dorcha Lee

Members of the Defence forces on parade during the National Day of Commemoration Ceremony at Collins Barracks on Sunday, July 10. It was highly appropriate that the Government revealed its action plan for the future of the Defence Forces, in the same week as we commemorated Irish men and Irish women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in wars and in the service of peace.

In June of last year, I wrote in this paper that the Defence Forces were in the last chance saloon.

I pointed out that, in the previous eight years, Irish defence spending fell, from 0.56% of GDP down to 0.27%, an annual decline of 0.035%. I noted that, if this level of decline continued, spending on defence would reach 0% by August 2028. The decline had, in fact, been steadily underway for the previous 40 years, at a slower pace, and no Irish Government intervened.