Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Harris is expected to announce plans Friday for Ireland to join the EU’s new security procurement mechanism, aimed at accelerating the acquisition of defense equipment.
While Ireland will not initially participate in the loan component of the mechanism, which has a total fund of up to €150bn, the Government is expected to consider this option in the coming weeks. Mr. Harris is reportedly interested in exploring this possibility.
Figures provided to the by the Department of Defence indicate that defense expenditure in 2024 amounted to 0.2% of GDP. This rate has remained consistent since 2021, and is slightly lower than the 0.3% recorded in 2020.
Gross National Income (GNI) is considered a more accurate indicator of national wealth in Ireland compared to GDP, as it excludes global profits of international corporations routed through Ireland for tax purposes.
According to the department’s data, Ireland’s defense spending represents 0.4% of GNI, which is double the percentage of GDP, based on the latest figures from 2023. This percentage is the same as in 2022, but slightly lower than in previous years (0.5%).
These figures persist despite increased defense budgets implemented following the report of the Commission on Defence Forces in February 2022.
This followed the Government’s adoption of the commission’s ‘Level of Ambition 2’ (LOA2) investment, which involves increasing the budget from €1.1bn in 2022 to €1.5bn (in 2022 prices) by 2028.
The Irish Examiner reported last February that Ireland had the lowest defence spend of 38 European countries in 2024 — by far the lowest based on GDP, and joint lowest with fellow neutral Malta based on GNI. Our GNI-based spend was more than half that of another EU neutral state, Austria.
The Department of Defence acknowledged that international comparisons of military expenditure are “made difficult” by a lack of publicly available data and differences in national defence policies. Therefore, they suggest using international perspectives for “context rather than comparison” between militaries.
Responding to the department’s figures, the association representing officers in the Defence Forces stated that the department “continually refers to the ‘record allocation’ in the defence budget.”
Lieutenant Colonel Conor King, general secretary of Raco, stated: “With Ireland still far below the levels of investment of comparator EU countries, despite the increasingly unstable global security environment, and with the personnel levels so low, how can we be satisfied that this level of spend remotely addresses Ireland’s needs to defend our citizens? If we’re honest, we can’t.”
He added: “Look at the Nato commitment to 5% ([3.5% on national defence and 1.5% on critical national infrastructure and resilience]. Now look at us at 0.2% of GDP or 0.4% of GNI. We are so far away from reality it’s like a bad joke. And many of those countries are our EU partners so it’s not just a ‘Nato thing’.”
The Raco general secretary characterized the capabilities of the Defence Forces as being in a very poor state: “With our naval service unable to put to sea, our air corps grounded after dark, and huge difficulties in staffing overseas, not to mention our technician strengths below 50% in most areas, which capabilities are we delivering on fully? And at what cost?”
The Tánaiste is expected on Friday to sign up to the EU Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative to expedite the acquisition of key defence capabilities, potentially by two years. These capabilities include ammunition, artillery systems, critical infrastructure protection, air defence systems, and maritime capabilities.
Mr. Harris is focusing on utilizing SAFE to address gaps in specific equipment, particularly through joint acquisitions with other member states.
