Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The secrets are out already. What happened in New York on 11 September 2001 shows how even a powerful country with a large air force and air protection capabilities cannot guarantee it will not be successfully attacked by terrorists. There is no small state, including Israel, that could be said to have a comprehensive air defence system. The threat to Ireland of an attack from the air is low. The expenditure on air defence is commensurate with that threat. Ireland could opt for an Israeli-type air defence system, costing €4 billion a year, but it may never be used. One wonders if this is the best possible use of resources when other Departments are crying out for resources.

Recently the chief of staff publicly said that if funding for the Department of Defence was increased, expenditure on air assets would be his lowest priority. He is in a better position than Ministers to judge these matters. It is a matter of scale as the level of air protection we have is commensurate with the level of threat. It has improved somewhat in recent years.

Many smaller countries take the approach of having a token air defence system, the "something for everyone in the audience" approach. These are systems that can respond in some way to all possible military situations. The view in military circles is that this is worse than useless. It is better to have a ready response to specific situations, with forces specifically trained to respond professionally to several given situations. This is the position on which we have based our air defence system. It is absurd to pretend that a country the size of Ireland could have a fully comprehensive, guaranteed system to ensure anyone who attacked us from the air could never penetrate our defences.

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