By Jonathan Diebold
While healthcare waiting lists fill up, disabled people languish on poverty-level payments and many ordinary people struggle to keep the lights on, there is one sector which is seeing a spending bonanza.
A squadron of fighter jets is set to be stationed in Shannon airport, at a cost of €100 million per year. Over their lifespan of 20-25 years, that will reach a total of €1.2 to €2.5 billion. Before the end of the year, the air force will also have a brand new Falcon 6X strategic reach aircraft, at a cost of €53 million. An additional €300 million will be spent on a new radar by 2028.
Money for bombs not need
The Air Corp will entirely replace their fleet of helicopters by 2028, and €600-€800 million will be spent on armoured vehicles. The navy will double its fleet size. All of this will also necessitate a massive recruitment campaign.
The defence budget is set to increase to €1.5 billion by 2028, but Simon Harris is already arguing to double this figure. According to the Irish Times, “All combat forces would be fully interoperable to Nato standards.” This kind of money could fund free public transport, or build enough housing to end homelessness. It could end means testing on disability payments and lift thousands out of poverty.
This is the context in which the government is now moving to remove the “Triple Lock” – the legal mechanism by which in order to deploy troops overseas, the government must seek approval from the UN and the Dáil. This was brought in under massive pressure on the government to assuage people’s fear that Irish neutrality was threatened due to the 2001 Treaty of Nice, which was initially rejected that year in a referendum of that year. Its removal will make it easier for the Irish State to participate in military operations conducted by Western imperialist states, an important measure for them in an epoch of growing inter-imperialist rivalry.
The Irish State has never been a neutral country, at least not politically. The state has virtually always sided with the imperialist powers of the US and Europe in their wars and military adventures. Notably, it has allowed three million US troops to travel through Shannon Airport since 2002, when its “war on terror” began that resulted in the deaths of one million people in Iraq and 176,000 in Afghanistan. More recently, the airport has been used to facilitate weaponry destined for the Gaza genocide.
Subservient to imperialism
Even when they verbally oppose the imperialist-backed Gaza genocide, they have quickly capitulated to pressure from US imperialism to ditch the Occupied Territories Bill for fear of antagonising Trump and US multinationals. All of this speaks to the fact that the Irish ruling class is thoroughly subservient to bigger powers–whether it is Uncle Sam or the European Union.
The idea that these huge levels of military spending being introduced are necessary for defensive purposes is a farce. In reality, the government has come under increasing pressure to participate in EU military ventures and is bringing its military up to interoperability standards. This is why we are seeing these proposed and unprecedented increases in military expenditure. The fact that Ireland is removing the triple lock at the same time as it is pouring money into the military shows that these arms are not destined to stay at home but rather will be used to intervene in imperialist interventions around the world.
No to capitalist wars
This rise in expenditure on weapons of war and destruction exists in a global context of increased militarisation. Accounting for inflation, military spending around the world increased by 7.4% in 2024 and nearly 20% in the last three years. The arms industry is expanding massively, including in Ireland, where the production of military software and parts for military vehicles and drones is rising and encouraged.
The government is cynically using the war in Ukraine to justify these policies, which are a bonanza for weapons dealers – the same ones supplying weapons for genocidal atrocities in Palestine and around the world – and will allow the military to intervene in conflicts for years to come. We must oppose militarisation, which forces working class people to do the bloody dirty work of capitalist imperialism and inevitably leads to the murder of working class, poor and oppressed people across the planet. We should not side with our capitalist rulers and their wars but fight to bring about their overthrow.
