Simon Coveney: Ireland unlikely to join Nato any time soon

There have been heightened calls for Ireland to join Nato in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, Mr Coveney said Ireland must work on its current military capacity first.

“I don't believe that Ireland is likely to join Nato anytime soon,” he said in his annual address to the Irish Institute of European Affairs on Wednesday. 

“But I certainly think that Irish people will be open to a more collective approach towards defending Irish interests and Irish citizens by increased partnership across the European Union, and that doesn't mean European armies. It means interoperability. It means when Ireland chooses to be part of something we have partners to work with, in those projects. And, and we have the infrastructure in the European Union to do that, with Pesco and with other mechanisms, but I certainly think there will be an openness amongst the Irish public for us to do a lot more in that space of the future, given what we're experiencing today.” 

Mr Coveney said there was a need to recognise that Ireland has capacity problems in terms of our own defence forces, because of “underinvestment for decades”.

Future defence

Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces was undertaken last year and is being used as a template to shape the approach that Government takes towards defence capacity.

“Which is going to involve spending a lot more money and allocating a lot more resources to the defence sector in the future,” Mr Coveney said.

“That is not an approach that is in any way pro-war or pro conflict or pro militarization. It is a necessary and honest response to what it means to be a militarily non-aligned country at the moment that needs to protect its own citizens and systems and also needs to be part of a more collective approach towards European defence and security.” 

The commission studied eight peer countries across Europe primarily within the European Union and compared Ireland, in terms of defence resourcing to those countries.

Ireland currently spends about a third of what those countries spend. on defence.

“What the report is recommending and what the commissioner is recommending is that we would at least move to spend about half of what they spend to get Ireland into a more credible space, in corps defence capacity,” Mr Coveney said.

The minister said that Ireland must face collective EU questions around defence and security, looking at how, for example, Ireland can protect itself along with others from cyber-attacks and from disinformation.

“In areas where there are vulnerabilities, where to be perfectly honest with you, we can't respond alone,” Mr Coveney added.

On the proposal to hold a Citizens' Assembly to discuss Ireland’s neutrality, Mr Coveney said he was “certainly open to that”.

“ I think certainly citizens' assemblies have served us well in terms of changing societal perspectives on certain issues, but I think government leadership needs to be part of that, too.

“I don't think we should just necessarily hand this to a citizens' assembly. I think government ministers and all political parties need to be involved in a broad discussion that is evidence-based. I'm certainly not saying no to a citizens' assembly, I think that might be a useful contribution. But there may be other ways in which we can broaden this that can help to create a mandate effectively for government to adapt our approaches towards security and common security and how it interacts with the world.”