Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The report does not recommend that the Government moves to purchase a squadron of fighter aircraft. There are three options for the Government: level of ambition one. which is to stay as we are; level of ambition two, which is to add the kind of capacity that I just put on the record; and level of ambition three, which is to increase military capacity more significantly in line with what most countries, in fact virtually all countries of the EU, have been doing for many years. The recommendation in the report is for us to move to level of ambition two, which is what I itemised a few minutes ago. Let us not get into conspiracy theories about so-called right wing media commentators. I am not quite sure who the Deputy is talking about when he starts using that kind of ideological language. Ireland is rightly having a discussion right now, both publicly and within Government, on how we respond to changing security circumstances across the Continent of Europe, given the brutality and aggression that we are seeing coming from Russia at the moment.

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