Irish Examiner view: Security always comes at a price

Defence force officers and academics have warned we need to invest more in air, sea and cyber-security.

Britain has ambitious, almost Empire II plans for the Royal Navy's two relatively new aircraft carriers. Each cost more than €3.3bn but they cannot deliver their objective — whatever that is — without funding. The UK government has said it expects to declare an "initial operating capability" for the mega carriers this month but, because of absent funding, the UK's National Audit Office is more circumspect. 

We face the same dilemma albeit on a very different, more intimate scale. A number of defence force officers and academics have warned that we need to invest more in air, sea and cyber-security if we are to be in a position to even challenge incursions into Irish airspace or waters or to protect hi-tech communications.

As we cannot even adequately protect our EU fisheries these ambitions seem almost dangerously beyond our reach. We may, despite almost unchallengeable declarations of neutrality, need to strengthen our defence forces to make even a proportionate contribution to EU defence programmes if, in a moment of crisis, we are to rely on European support. The almost constant whittling away of army and navy capabilities undermines that capability.