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    L’Irlanda svela un piano da 1,7 miliardi di euro per rafforzare le sue deboli difese

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    18 commenti

    1. Chester_roaster on

      They should just bury the money in a big hole instead, at least we would be able to retrieve it later. 

    3. Key_Duck_6293 on

      So whats the general view on Irish neutrality across Europe? I was raised to be proud of it but since Russia there’s been a growing view that we should ditch it and join NATO.

      I get how important NATO is but they’ve also done some pretty horrible things historically, there’s still protests in Ireland over the US using one of our airports, which its used to fly arms and supplies to support the war crimes in Iraq, or the genocide in Gaza.

      Being wedges in between the yanks and the brits has kind of put us in a goldilocks zone where we haven’t had to defend anything, hence the historically low military spend.

    4. NocturneFogg on

      Our defence budget has been unrealistically low, but historically we’ve also had no realistic threats and live in a rather benign geographical and geopolitical position.

      The broader European situation has changed since the invasion of Ukraine and that has implications for Ireland regardless of whether we’d prefer not to have to consider them.

      I think there’s also a fringe in Irish politics that constantly confuses being completely defenceless with neutrality or independence of defence. I’ve seen arguments that buying a radar system from Saab is somehow “warmongering” etc etc.

      We’re not intentionally freeloading (as it’s often the accusation), rather we’re behaving like the guy down the street who doesn’t lock the car and leaves the back door wide open because security is bad karma…

      Ireland’s also more economically and strategically relevant than if used to be, but we still tend to think of ourselves in this “and sure why would anyone be remotely interested in invading?! Are you completely mad?!” – and it comes down to the fact that we see ourselves as being remote, small and just not really involved in those issues.

      The reality of it is different. We’re an EU member. We are increasingly a financial, tech and pharma hub and we’ve also made very strongly not neutral political statements on Ukraine because we aren’t politically neutral on it, and how could we be? A large imperial power is brutally invading its neighbour – if that doesn’t set off Irish historical echoes, I don’t know what would – and it very definitely does. Then you get into the debates about what exactly we mean by neutrality, because I really don’t think we’re able to define it.

      There are valid concerns regarding NATO, and I see exactly the same concerns raised in NATO members and in the EU context, particularly about the US military positions, chaos in Washington and use of the organisation in Iraq etc in the past, yet at the same time we’ve undefined ad hoc arrangements with the US that aren’t even very transparent – use of Shannon etc makes very little sense.

      So I don’t know – I think Ireland seems to just have a lot of odd positions that have historical explanations but that are just a bit abstracted from the very chaotic realities of 2025.

    5. Basic-Sign-7144 on

      Sorry, I don’t know much about Ireland, but who does it need protection from? It’s only neighbour is the UK.

    7. Alak-huls_Anonymous on

      Countries like Ireland don’t really care about defense. This is performative. They know they can’t really stop anyone and that more than likely someone will come to their defense if there was an incursion.

    8. PROINSIAS62 on

      €1.7 Billion is a pittance in the realm of defence spending. Basically it will buy you a few sophisticated petrol bombs.

      We need to get real and be prepared to spend that on capital expenditure every year.

    9. Mrstrawberry209 on

      Ierland has a chance, with the gained experiences of the last years, where to focus on and strengthen collaboration with mainland Europe. 1,7 billion still seems low though.

    10. No_Football_9232 on

      This is the Trump effect. Making the world an unsafer place globally.

    11. -SideshowBlob- on

      Can’t wait to see how much of a balls they make of this

      At least it’s a start…

    12. hmmm_ on

      Irish people don’t react well to lectures by the big ex colonial powers. It’d be helpful if we could hear more about defence and threats from the smaller EU countries, we’d have a lot of respect for the Finns, Baltics etc.

    13. YolognaiSwagetti on

      That fiasco with the drone looking for Zelensky’s plane should have never happened. Irish or British ships/drones or whatever should have seen both the ship and the drone well in advance and shot down both ASAP. Ireland is small, but also rich and have high quality education, they have the opportunity to concentrate on naval/aerial/intelligence tools with a lot of money and brainpower, which will be good for the entire EU, I hope they will do that.

    14. Beyllionaire on

      Ireland finally realized it couldn’t remain a defense freeloader. At least invest in air defense without relying on the UK. No one is asking you to bring back military service and have a 100K men army but at least be capable of patrolling your own airspace and waters.

      Oh and ofc don’t buy anything from the US.

    16. differentshade on

      They are too far behind. 1.7 billion will do nothing. They should send it to Ukraine.

    17. Icy_Party954 on

      Waste of money, defense against what Russia? In Ireland or do they think they’re going to send an expandationary force to Ukraine?

    18. Lumpy-Valuable-8050 on

      Ireland should just give that to the British Royal navy. We do their job for them anyways 😂

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