Money to be spent on new defence forces uniforms

Given the state we are in, it’s telling that this is the announcement he chose to make.
 
Rediculous stuff !

It's no secret that a lot of the junior ranks in our military, and navy, are paid a low income. As such, the money would have been far better going straight into pay increases, for the junior grades.
 
MrEarl said:
It's no secret that a lot of the junior ranks in our military, and navy, are paid a low income. As such, the money would have been far better going straight into pay increases, for the junior grades.
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I think that if they had proper equipment, proper training and proper pathways to real advancement most junior ranks would put up with the low starting pay.
 
I agree with @Dr Strangelove. Appearance matters. Our defence forces have difficulty in attracting recruits for a start. Worse again there are ongoing important dignity-at-work issues within the force. It’s not too long since the men there depended on their wives to represent some problems. I don’t care what their new uniforms cost, just get them.
 
Leper said:
It’s not too long since the men there depended on their wives to represent some problems
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Not following what you are trying to say?

does that mean women serving in the defence forces can represent themselves but men can't?
 
Next we need:
A Navy that can put to sea in a meaningful way.
A mobile subsea sonar system enabling our Navy can observe activity near key Utility Infrastructure (This might be under way, with Thales).
Technology to disable drones activity, at our airports.
Primary radar
Intercept jets (Enough to maintain 24/7 cover)

Brendan Burgess said:
They will think twice about invading a country
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The new treat is not Russia invading in a conventional sense. It is the 'Hybrid Warfare' we are seeing emerge. Imagine the risk to our economy (& FDI specifically) if the subsea cables were damaged and/or ESB networks were hacked resulting in brown outs etc.!
 
Itchy said:
I'm sure he is referring to WPDF and similar, going back to the 80's.
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Yep the Army Spouses Association, whose protests in 1989 cost Haughey a majority in the 1989 general election and forced him to go into partnership with Des O'Malley's hated Pee Dees.

One important outcome was the establishment of The Gleeson Commission which investigated pay and conditions in the Defence Forces and led to many improvements. (The ailing Brian Lenihan was appointed Minister for Defence and ran his unsuccesful presidential campaign from that Department in 1990, until the Pee Dees forced Haughey to fire him.) Interesting times politically.
 
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Uafásach said:
The new treat is not Russia invading in a conventional sense. It is the 'Hybrid Warfare' we are seeing emerge. Imagine the risk to our economy (& FDI specifically) if the subsea cables were damaged and/or ESB networks were hacked resulting in brown outs etc.!
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Very much so - add to that cyber attacks on commercial interests and other important services, eg an attack on OpenEir would take out a huge amount of domestic fibre connectivity.
This discussion is worth a look https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_european_union_affairs/2024-05-15/2/
Interesting point was that Saint Catherine of Yarmouk in the Dail earlier this year attacked one participant in the discussion above, Ben Tonra, a UCD lecturer, for his role in setting up Irish Defence and Security Association, which he discusses in the committee discussion above. Since our military approved purchases this year are primarily going to be in the form of radar, sonar and uniforms is was somewhat disappointing to hear Saint Catherine practically defame a private citizen under the guise of critiquing an anachronistic typology of "military industrial complex". https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2025-05-08/159/#pq-answers-159 Her precise words in that particular debate were "Let us look at this organisation. It was set up in 2021. Ben Tonra is a member. He is on record declaring that he had been volunteering to set up this organisation for some time. This is a man who has serious views on neutrality being selfish. He is part of this organisation that lobbies for the international arms industry. That is how I see it. The Tánaiste can correct me if I am wrong. I am over time."
Tonra is of course a UCD lecturer. Its kind of hard to see him as a hard nosed lobbyist for industry.
Our primary issue of course is in this kind of despairing discussion on anything military - as the Connolly questions and comments suggest, ANY kind of investment, even non lethal and merely decorative and surveillance, is labelled as "military industrial complex" and "threating our neutrality." There is no mention of the course, that there is an increasing sense that Ireland freeloads off the miliary spending of other neighbouring countries and leaves a large gap in the continents defences as a whole.
That doesn't even start to discuss the role of malevolent forces in trying to run influence campaigns here to up end our democratic institutions. The large number of groups campaigning to either "spoil the vote" in a misguided attempt to influence the outcome of the election or "declare the election unconstitutional" was plainly disturbing.
 
I saw a tweet at the weekend.

"On defense, Ireland is like the guy at the pub happily drinking pints, others are paying for, whilst sneering at those 'foolish' enough to buy a round."
 
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lff12 said:
Since our military approved purchases this year are primarily going to be in the form of radar, sonar and uniforms is was somewhat disappointing to hear Saint Catherine practically defame a private citizen under the guise of critiquing an anachronistic typology of "military industrial complex".
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Its not the enemy at the gate you should fear but the enemy within.

We can no longer afford the luxury of neutrality nor should we be running around in a chicken licken fashion decrying our sensible neighbours who are ramping up military spending.
 
I am 100% for our neutrality.

But I know that given our martitime area, we badly new more naval vessels and aircraft.

Also given the geo-politics, undersea cables, etc.

Objecting to replacement vessels, or more vessels is bonkers.

Did I read that we are down to two usable naval ships - crazy stuff.
 
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