Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a clear view on this matter. My view is that a Europe that is worth building is a Europe that is worth defending. For a very long time, all of Europe has relied on the United States to provide for its defence. There are real threats to European security and, over time, rather than relying on the United States to defend Europe and pay for European defence, Europe should provide and pay for its own defence and not be dependent on the United States in the way it has been since 1945. That is what PESCO and European security and defence co-operation are all about. It is Europe starting to take responsibility for and control over its own defence, not relying on the United States in the way it has done until now.

In Ireland, however, we have a particular, different view. We have a long-standing tradition of non-alignment and neutrality, one that I and this Government will defend because we believe our non-alignment and neutrality makes us stronger and gives us more influence around the world. PESCO, for us, is going to be something different than it perhaps is for other countries. The reason we want to join PESCO is precisely because it is not what the Deputy says it is for us, because we are going to join it on an opt-in, opt-out basis. We will only opt in to certain programmes and certain parts of PESCO that we want to be involved in, for example, counter-terrorism, given all European countries need to work together to defeat terrorism. Cyber-security and peacekeeping are further examples of areas we are going to opt into. I can assure the Deputy we are not going to be buying aircraft carriers, we are not going to be buying fighter jets and we are not going to be shopping around military trade fairs for any of these things, as that is not in our interest.

Defence spending will rise. We have already committed to an increase in defence spending that has been set out in the White Paper since long before PESCO. That increase in defence spending will go into bringing our Defence Forces up to the level we want them to be at, that is, between 9,000 and 10,000. It will go into pay increases, which have already started but which will kick in across January and through to October of next year. It will go into new equipment because we need new equipment for our Defence Forces.

Yes, we are going to increase defence spending, but we are going to increase it moderately and we are going to increase it so that our Defence Forces can carry out the job that we want them to do.

When it comes to PESCO, we are proposing to join on an opt-in, opt-out basis, only opting into the particular operations and programmes that we want to be a part of. In doing so, we are joining three other neutral countries that have already decided to join - Sweden, Austria and Finland, countries with long-standing traditions of neutrality and of not being members of NATO and that have already made the decision to join. I think we should, too.

See this speech in context