Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will cut in for one second. I attended an intelligence and security forum in London that involved people from the American side - Senators and Congressmen - and politicians from all over Europe. The word used about the Irish Defence Forces was "horrified". They were horrified at the weakened state of our eastern flank, as the Americans put it and as the Europeans put it, our western flank. There is a gaping hole in the western Atlantic and that gaping hole is Ireland. Everybody at that conference was talking about it. Indeed, I was asked if I would go to Washington and brief Senators on the situation in the Irish Defence Forces. We are really not taking this seriously.

We are buying nice new machines and things. Today we find radar will not be delivered until 2028. This is total nonsense.