Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 July 2025

Committee on Defence and National Security

General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed)

2:00 am

Mr. Barry Andrews:

To be clear, the €800 million is not being spent by the EU. The private sector and different member states are included. The EU's own spending is a much smaller figure. Ms Boylan referred to €7 billion for the EDF over seven years, whereas France spends approximately €50 billion a year on defence. The European Union is quite different-----