Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his welcome. With respect, the question he asked concerned the way Ireland's defence expenditure as a share of GDP compares with those of other EU nations which are not members of NATO. The briefing I have refers to the question put down for answer as a priority question and does not mention the other issues raised by the Deputy. Notwithstanding the comments the Deputy made about Ireland's spending being lower than that of others, if one compares the non-NATO countries about which he asked with the Defence Forces' complement, Ireland is doing quite well in that we have about 9,950 full-time Army personnel and spend about €901 million on our armed services. If one compares this with other countries, one can see that Malta has 2,000 personnel. While its defence expenditure takes up a higher proportion of GDP, it spends much less than us at €44 million. Austria, which has a complement of 28,000 full-time army personnel, spends €2.4 billion. Sweden has a very large army of 259,000 full-time personnel and spends €4.2 billion. Its defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP is 1.23%. Finland has 35,328 full-time personnel and spends €2.7 billion. Cyprus has 12,000 personnel and spends €361 million. Notwithstanding the very difficult situation in which we find ourselves and the cuts that have taken place as a result of the comprehensive review of expenditure across all Departments, I reiterate that the Chief-of-Staff has confirmed that the Defence Forces can continue to meet all their operational requirements at home and overseas.

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