Interesting articles

'Ireland is to consider ignoring NATO military assets in its territorial waters, airspace and EEZ as it solves a problem it cannot and does not want to address itself.'

Fixed the auld headline for you RTÉ.

A) We haven't got the crew for it

B) The Chief Constable is only ball hopping so his budget doesn't get cut so hard

C) Its embarrassing that a jurisdiction one third the size and population of the Republic has 50% more police helicopterage.

Is the point of the 105s just for training purposes as we have never brought them overseas. We have only ever broughy our mortarsand not field guns

Its just an upgrade to keep them working. The section about it is below

The Defence Forces have plans to acquire new ground based air defence radars and associated missile effector systems as recommended in the Defence Forces Commission report, while the upgrading of its 105mm light guns will future-proof the weapons out until 2035, he said

The RTÉ discussion on Claire Byrne between John O Brennan and RBB…

Take a guess as to who is talking utter bollocks.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22258746/

Anything that shines the shame lamp the Government parties is no harm.

I imagine Varadkar felt a little of it too, at the European Political Community summit in Moldova this week.

Again, more spin on the reality that we are completely impotent.

But yeah, awkward questions no doubt, and all in the presence of some proper ballsy leaders like Zelensky and Maia Sandu and in the afterglow of radical policy changes by Sweden and Finland.

"Ireland, the second richest Country in the EU...."

Ambulance for Varadkar and Martin please, they've received a burn.

On the air policing mission suggestion, I'd say it was some idea tossed around in the back channels and Cathal Berry's name is never far from any such notions, but it was probably fairly recent and always a complete non-starter.

An air policing mission, as I understand it, would be along the lines of what we see from the big NATO air forces basing complete air components in the Balkans and the western Black Sea.

Undoubtedly it would be politically impossible to base RAF warplanes in the Republic and frankly I don't think any other NATO air force would get a much warmer welcome from our tankie friends, so long as our formal defence and security policy is stuck in so many shades of grey.

Our best bet, as alluded to in the article, is to get a modern surveillance system up and running asap, including our ships and maritime patrol aircraft and begin the bi-lateral exchange of information and intelligence with our wider neighbourhood; Britain, France, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Portugal, the US and Canada. They are the nations with the assets and the networks to physically against threats and if we can support that at least, we'll be a sight better off that we are now.

Probably both. But they got their OECD 15% corporate tax rate, so they can **** off.

In any case, even using the Irish preference for the more accurate GNI* metric rather than GDP, we are still the second highest perfomer in the EU and fifth in the World.

The only reason that doesn't translate to second / fifth wealthiest outright, is that our national reserves are low and our debt still quite high, but by 2030, all things being equal, that position will have reversed and our national wealth per capita will be up there with Norway, Singapore, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

Hardly much credibility in playing the poor mouth then.....

When it comes to the french they are not afraid to do deals to sell gear, Just look at the amount new Renault Trucks on the road, the french will find a payment soluton for anyone

Renault vehicles aren't sold by the French Government. They are imported to Ireland tariff free and sold commercially to people who like the deals Renault might offer, just like Scania or Iveco or MAN or Mercedes.

Defence sales are a whole different ballgame and have a massive political element to them, as well as procurement rules.

Cathal Berry mentioned it last week in the committee that it was only brought in during the crash as they had large numbers applying.

Why in the name of god does Paul Up Paul get to be the only opposition figure that gets the airwaves on defence. The man doesn’t have a fecking clue about any area of the topic and is just a default anti West BS merchant. He adds nothing to the topic and is never challenged.

Tankie's naval knowledge just about extends to a game of Battleship.

Not the electronic version obviously, that would be far too bourgeois.