The action plan — published in McKee Barracks amid considerable political and military fanfare and generally positive media publicity — was not an “implementation plan”, which is what most interested people expected.

In fact, we will have to wait until January 2023 to see an implementation plan — almost a year on from the publication of the CDF report.

Security sources said they did expect more from the Government in terms of detail and implementation.

But, putting that to one side, what are the key components of the action plan?

Ambition 

The Government announced that it was adopting the second of two options — Level of Ambition 2 (LOA2) — set out by the CDF.

The CDF had all but dismissed LOA1, which was effectively the status quo. It described LOA3 as providing a “credible defence” posture, comparable to countries similar to Ireland.

But this would involve trebling the defence budget, to €3bn per year.

So, it recommended LOA2: a 50% increase in the budget, to €1.5bn, “in the short term”. This would allow for priority gaps to be filled, more robust peacekeeping, and a better contribution to national security.

In the action plan, the Government committed to increase the budget from the current level of €1.1bn to at least €1.5bn by 2028. Factoring in inflation, that could be around €1.9bn by then.

This is the first issue where clarity is lacking. The report called for the increase — of almost €500m — to happen “in the short term”.

But nowhere in the CDF’s 210-page report does it say what "the short term" is. This could be because the committee had a high number of senior civil servants who might have been cautious about definite timelines.

However, many security sources did not expect it to be 2028 by the time that €400m-€500m increase would fully materialise, with some of a view that the end of the current Government's term, say 2024, might have been what was anticipated.

Maybe the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces were looking at Nato timeframes for defence procurement, where "short term" can be anything from 0-6 years.

But one source said people shouldn't get too “hung up” on budgets and said what was more important were the Government’s commitments and the “floor level” of funding announced.

The Government has made commitments that the Defence Forces can see what is going on in the skies and seas and underwater with commitments to primary and coastal radars, underwater surveillance systems, a new army fleet, more helicopters, etc," said one source.

What complicates matters in terms of the action plan is that the Government has given one of four possible positions on how it stands on the 130 CDF recommendations.

These are:

• Accepted — will be implemented (37% of all recommendations); 
• Accepted in principle — meaning further consideration is required on the best way to meet the recommendation (42% of recommendations);
• Further evaluation — meaning recommendation is “desirable”, but a detailed evaluation and consultation is needed before “a decision on implementation can be considered” (13% of recommendations);
• Revert — meaning the recommendations are complex, may require legal changes, and could take “significant time” to fully implement, and that the Defence Minister will revert to Government with proposals at a later date (8% or recommendations).

The action plan said the implementation plan will detail actions over the short, medium, and long term.

Big-ticket items 

The CDF said the provision of a primary radar system was an “immediate and top priority” for the air corps.

The fact that Ireland is blind to aircraft — including hostile or hijacked planes — flying over Irish-controlled airspace or even over the island if they have their transponders turned off, has long been a major military and civilian threat to this country.

The fact there is a secret agreement with the British RAF to intercept such aircraft has long driven a coach and horses through the country’s tradition of neutrality.

The CDF report said the radar capability was needed for the protection of “our national sovereignty in the air, the purposes of civil aviation safety, and also the maintenance of co-operative relations with neighbouring states who are also impacted by this gap”.

This key recommendation has been “accepted in principle” with, hopefully, more detail in the implementation plan.

But what if we have the radar, what then, sources have asked, given the air corps does not have jets it can scramble to intervene?

LOA2 does not include any recommendation in this regard, which, given the costs involved, is contained only in LOA3, which envisages a “squadron of jet combat aircraft”.

LOA2 does recommend medium and long-haul aircraft, leaving it open to the State as to the mix of purchasing aircraft and buying access to them. That, and a recommendation for medium-lift helicopters, is accepted in principle.

For the naval service, the CDF called for an “accelerated programme” of ship replacement, so that there is a balanced fleet of nine modern ships “by early in the next decade”.

Amid decimated numbers, the task faced by the naval service is daunting: patrolling some 1,315km of seas for illegal fishing (a hugely lucrative industry), protecting threatened marine wildlife, keeping commercial sea lanes open, countering drug trafficking, and protecting our ports.

Then there is the increased traffic caused by Brexit and naval exercises by unfriendly states.

This is not to mention protecting critically vital undersea cables and the future demands regarding the protection of offshore energy sources, including windfarms and wave power.

The CDF also recommended that vessels be double crewed, meaning maritime security and policing operations could be significantly expanded.

The CDF report did accept that nine ships and double crewing by 2030 “would be very ambitious”.

Both key recommendations have been accepted in principle.

For the army, a key recommendation is the replacement of the Mowag armoured personnel carriers (APCs) with a larger and enhanced fleet with greater firepower.

This will, like other key recommendations, cost a significant amount of money, but the Government has also accepted it in principle.

The action plan accepts in principle calls to recruit an additional 100 specialist personnel for a new Joint Cyber Defence Command — but how this will be done, given the salaries available in the private sector and competing demands from the National Cyber Security Centre and the Garda Cyber Crime Bureau, which are also expanding — is not clear. The CDF accepts this could take 5-10 years to implement.

The CDF made a number of recommendations in relation to Military Intelligence, including a legal and governance framework on co-operation with Gardaí on intelligence matters. The Government agreed to this in principle.

But a key recommendation to develop capabilities to counter ‘hybrid activity’ — which includes cyber attacks, disinformation, election interference and economic pressures, etc — has been sent for “further evaluation”.

So too has the recommendation that the roles and functions of Military Intelligence be “urgently clarified” and underpinned by laws.

Pay and conditions

On bread-and-butter stuff — but crucial for retention, in particular, but also recruitment — the Government has accepted recommendations for allowances to be increased for the lowest-paid in the Defence Forces.

The CDF was excluded in its terms of reference from examining pay — something that is always worth repeating — but tried to get around it by looking at allowances.

In addition, the CDF highlighted the “severe impact” the increased frequency of duties and training requirements is having on personnel.

Working hours exceeding the expected norm should receive adequate compensation and also be managed appropriately,” the report said.

The sudden ask to work 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week is hitting members hard, sources have said.

The CDF called for the EU Working Time Directive to apply, as with gardaí. That the Government has accepted this and is preparing a draft bill, appears to be a big plus, though it is not clear where the action plan stands on compensation — either overtime or time in lieu.

The CDF also flagged the need for work flexibility, as other non-conscription based Defence Forces have had to do, including for single parent personnel or members with children with special needs. 

The Government has accepted or accepted in principle these recommendations.

While they don’t deal with pay, all these work and conditions issues may play a crucial role in retention, and the planned recruitment of 3,000 people.