Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Rather than retaining spending at the current cost, the proposal is based on the fact that the EU as a whole has a decreasing military spend. That is a laudable result and is not to be lamented, nor should it be increased to create an arms race similar to those from Europe suffered greatly in the past. The Minister of State is saying that the Government has no position and does not want to pre-empt the debate. However, has Ireland already pre-empted this debate by assenting in October to the European Defence Agency, EDA, allocating €1.4 million to a pilot project in order to underline and prepare for the eventual project of increasing spending on research and pooling an initial €5 billion - up to €25 billion and maybe beyond that afterwards - in EU defence spending, as proposed by the EU and outside forces such as the US Presidency.

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