Taoiseach Micheál Martin - Special European Council in Brussels

I'm looking forward to the council meeting. We've come first from the UK — we had a very good UK-Ireland Summit this morning and last evening, and that was a very constructive engagement. I think today is an opportunity again for the European Union to demonstrate its ongoing commitment and support for Ukraine in what has been a terrible war and a terrible ordeal for the Ukrainian people since the illegal invasion by Russia of Ukraine three years ago. And also, I welcome the proposals that will increase the capacity of member states to improve their defence and security capabilities. I think a number of flexible, pragmatic but strong proposals have emerged from the Commission in the context of flexibilities in the Stability and Growth Pact, for example, in terms of spending, and also in terms of the €15 billion loan facility, and also the potential of some member states to utilise other mechanisms such as cohesion funds. All of that, when you put it together, is, I think, an innovative approach to create a resource base for member states to improve their security capability and defence capabilities. And as I've been saying consistently, we cannot have proper operation of the single market or our economies without a strong security architecture across Europe. And so this is very indispensable spending in terms of the quality of lives of our citizens to ensure that we can continue to have peace and prosperity into the future. And it also signals a growing direction in respect of self-reliance within Europe itself in terms of its own defence and security, given the geopolitical situation as it's emerging.

Well, I think at the moment, within our budgetary frameworks and our level of ambition, that's all manageable within our current fiscal framework. And we got figures against this morning in terms of the future, in terms of the level of ambition, which won't kick in for a number of years. Obviously, we'll assess that at that particular point in time. But what's happening here does give additional mechanisms that we and other states could use. At the moment, we're not borrowing because we have a surplus in our exchequer financing. We have the largest capital programme at the moment underway. And also, of course, we're particularly focusing on cyber security threats, maritime security threats, working with other member states. We're procuring a premier radar system, and we're likely to be doing that via the joint procurement model. It's already gone out to tender during my time as Minister of Defence. And I think the broader issues that face Europe face us as well in terms of procurement, speed of procurement, the nimbleness of the defence industry globally and within Europe to respond to increasing demands and so on. So these are kind of real pragmatic issues that are facing member states at the moment.

No, you see, we don't avail of a whole lot of cohesion funding as it stands. This really primarily will help other member states across Europe who will need that flexibility in their fiscal frameworks and will need these mechanisms to increase their spending on defence, and particularly some countries who feel very vulnerable at the moment in terms of the Russian threat. And so, you know, as things presently stand, in the context of our policy of military neutrality — which essentially means we're militarily non-aligned, we're not members of NATO — this does not in any way contravene that. I mean, investing in your own security, investing in your own defence capability, does not contravene military neutrality. We have a peacekeeping force in Lebanon. There has to be interoperability with other countries that we work with on peacekeeping missions. And so it's logical. And we also genuinely have to enhance our own capabilities. We're coming from a low base in Ireland, it has to be acknowledged, compared to other member states in terms of our capabilities. And we shouldn't confuse the two. And I think it's important that we don't confuse the two issues.