Allegation that Ireland let’s others do the heavy lifting in the EU
Ireland is the 5th largest contributor of troops to the UN in the EU, per capita we are therefore the largest. Which means we are doing the heavy lifting there for the EU!
you’ll find Ireland made significant contributions to EU missions in Chad, Bosnia, Somalia, Mediterranean and Mali. Plus contributing to 7 of the EU Battlegroups.
Ireland like every other member can pick and choose under our own laws what overseas military operations it becomes involved in
UN missions don't count. They are just peacekeeping. My point was that the EU is increasingly moving towards a super state, with its own foreign office, diplomats, central tax, banking system and armed forces. This is a fact. There will become a point when the previously non aligned countries like Sweden, Austria and ROI will no longer be able to maintain this position due to the fact that they are in the EU. Now the troublesome British are out, opt out's will be a thing of the past. Look whats happening with Ireland's low corporation tax for multi-nationals.
There is no guarantee the US will be in Europe forever or that Nato will still exist. The EU has plans to replace Nato with a European Army. After all the EU has kept the peace in Europe for sixty years apparently. What happens in future if the Russians start playing silly buggers with Baltic States or with incursions along the Swedish coast which is happening at the moment. Brussels will be entitled to ask all members states to contribute to a force to beef up the defence of those states and act as a deterence, not just leave the heavy lifting to countries like France and Poland who resource their armed forces properly. What if Ireland was situated in Eastern Europe instead of the coast of Western Europe. It would expect help from other EU members wouldn't it?
We know that Ireland likes spending the minimun it can on defence. Some may call that free loading. Surely a way to counter that would be to have a very capable unit like ARW ready to committ to any possible kinetic future EU operations. backed up by helicopters and small fast armed patrol boats. Also convert one of your infantry battalions into a US Ranger type battalion. It would be a small outlay which could easily be met from the existing budget, even if you had to axe a couple of conventional battalions. Everyone in EUland would be happy and Ireland would shed its reputation as a freeloader on defence whether this reputation is justified or not.
