Sir, – Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Helen McEntee said at a press conference during the EU defence ministers conference in Wicklow that Ireland will give €10 million specifically to fund the “modernisation of military training facilities in Ukraine”. She repeated this announcement on social media. (“Ireland did’t spent enough on defence in past but ‘that has changed’ – McEntee”, September 2nd)
Once again, it must be queried whether such expenditure is compatible with Ireland’s widely supported policy of military neutrality.
The funding of military training facilities in a country at war is plainly at odds with what most rational people conceive military neutrality to be.
The issue here is not what we think of Russia’s imperialist war on Ukraine, but whether our Government is calculatedly ignoring this State’s military neutrality policy and doing as it pleases. Similarly, Irish involvement in the growing militarisation of the EU is also viewed as unproblematic by the parties in power.
It seems to me that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael should at least be honest and announce that – for as long as they are in government – they consider Irish military neutrality to be a dead letter. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN LANE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.