Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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131. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence further to Parliamentary Question No. 113 of 18 September 2024, if his Department has made any projections of its likely required budget out to 2029 especially in the context of reaching LOA2, as set out in the capability framework devised by the Commission on the Defence Forces; and if so, whether he will provide the details of same; if his Department made a submission in relation to the review of the NDP out to 2030; if so, the estimated projected budget for defence contained in that submission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42325/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Government approved the move to ‘Level of Ambition 2’ (LOA2), as set out in the capability framework devised by the Commission on the Defence Forces in July, 2022. This provided for a rise in the Defence budget to €1.5 billion, in 2022 prices, by 2028, as part of the annual Estimates process.

The Estimates process encompass a twelve month funding cycle, and is set within the broad macro financial parameters outlined in the prevailing Summer Economic Statement. The Department does not prepare overall budget projection beyond this established framework and, therefore, has not made budget projections out to 2029.

Separately, and as requested as part of the multi-annual NDP review process undertaken earlier this year, the Department of Defence submitted detailed capital investment proposals for 2025 and 2026 to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery & Reform.

These proposals strongly emphasised the need for a significant, incremental increase to Defence capital funding, with an allocation of €245 million for 2025, rising to €290 million for 2026 sought.

After a number of bilaterals with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery & Reform, that Department published revised multi-annual capital ceilings for all sectors in April.

This will see capital investment in Defence increase to €215 million in 2025, as confirmed recently in Budget 2025, and further increasing to €220 million in 2026 – the highest level of capital funding provided to date. This will represent a significant increase of €79 million (56%) on the corresponding 2022 Defence capital funding allocation of €141 million.

This is a positive outcome and represents a clear demonstration of this Government’s strong commitment to support the transformation of the Defence Forces into a modern, agile military force while also being capable of responding to increasingly more complex global security threats and events.