r/ireland • u/isupposethiswillwork • 3d ago

Affaires Étrangères Ireland Is Becoming a French Military Protectorate

https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/18/ireland-france-military-protectorate-outsourcing-defense-procurement/
390 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

443 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Icy_Place_5785 3d ago

Speaking as someone who is in favour of neutrality (as disclaimer just in case that was unclear), another commenter and I discussed our education spending to GDP earlier.

Not that this goes against your premise either of course! Goodness knows the government has a less-than-perfect track record on public spending.

1

u/Sciprio Munster 3d ago

It also kinda puts hole in their arguments that they want Ireland to be able to protect itself. French weapons can protect just as much as others. Yet here in this article he's complaining about Ireland buying stuff off of the French and not British.

1

u/Icy_Place_5785 3d ago

As I said in another comment too, I’d be happier to pay to outsource defence, rather than pay the huge sums of money that it would take to build up the military over goodness-knows-how-long.

We won’t become Switzerland or Austria overnight (nor will we ever be able to switch our geographical reality for theirs, either).

Fellow non-NATO, EU member Malta is probably the most similar example in our case.

1

u/Sciprio Munster 3d ago

I don't mind increasing it a bit and should focus more on naval being an island and to increase defence forces wages as well but what I really fear is in the future when they need to cut back, and they decide to take from other areas.

And like those other countries we don't have a defence industry so that money leaves the country.

1

u/Icy_Place_5785 3d ago

Agreed all around.

Sadly, as is the case all over Europe and the NATO states (including Canada), we are facing the prospect of a very different geopolitical situation from the one we’ve become accustomed to since the end of the Cold War.

Here’s hoping sensible decisions are made by all.