John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I asked a similar question of the Minister's predecessor who suggested the allocation to the Defence Forces had been reduced to 0.6% last year. I will have to check up on that figure.

Does the Minister accept that Ireland has the lowest defence spending in Europe as a percentage of GNP? The Minister said the United States spends almost 3.25% of GDP in this area. Does the Minister accept the analysis of many economists that one of the reasons for Ireland's economic performance in latter years has been the fact that our spend on defence is much lower than in other countries?

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