Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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410. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the total value of expenditure from his Department’s annual accounts in 2019, 2020 and 2021, in tabular form, that related to financial transactions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; and if he will provide a breakdown of the nature of expenditure. [17866/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland is not a member of NATO, and accordingly does not contribute to NATO common costs or common funding.

Ireland’s relationship with NATO is set within the framework of Partnership for Peace (PfP), which we have been a member of since 1999. Over the last two decades, Ireland’s participation in PfP has been of significant importance in the development of the peacekeeping capabilities of our Defence Forces and their interoperability with other potential peacekeeping contributing nations. This has allowed the Defence Forces to operate seamlessly alongside other countries on UN peacekeeping operations and other crisis management missions overseas.

Ireland’s engagement at NATO is tailored in line with Ireland’s policy of military non-alignment and non-membership of military alliances. There is no membership fee to be part of PfP.

In order to manage our partnership with NATO, Ireland maintains an office in a NATO building in Brussels, the rental and maintenance costs of which are directly payable to NATO.

Separately, Ireland has also made a number of voluntary contributions to NATO Trust Funds which provide capacity-building support to partners such as Ukraine, Jordan, Georgia, Tunisia and Moldova, as well as other UN Troop Contributing Countries. We have provided this support only where the activities supported by the Trust Funds align with Ireland’s foreign and security policy. Irish contributions have primarily been in support of disarmament activities.

In 2021, Ireland made a contribution of €100,000 to the NATO Trust Fund to build the capacity of African UN Troop Contributing Counties by the provision of medical training, communication training and countering improvised explosives device training by NATO experts. A member of the Defence Forces has also been seconded to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Uganda to provide expertise as part of the implementation of this wider UN-NATO package. Ireland also provided €50,000 to the Trust Fund for Jordan in 2021. Ireland made no other voluntary contributions to NATO Trust Funds in the period 2019 – 2021.

Irish Liaison Office Costs

NATO Trust Funds