Defence by Design: A High-Tech Path Out of Ireland’s Security Hypocrisy

Military spending is in the news — not just how much, but how much relative to other countries, especially when one relies on another’s protection while avoiding a fair share of the burden. NATO as a whole depends heavily on the United States. Ireland, though outside NATO, relies on the EU, NATO and the US for a security shield it does not provide for itself.

Ireland spends between 0.2% and 0.3% of GDP on defence, one of the lowest levels in Europe. Historically this was explained by economic underdevelopment and the need to prioritise building the state after independence. Over time, the official posture evolved: “neutrality” came to mean not only avoiding military alliances, but in practice avoiding the capacity to defend oneself at all — as if beyond the reach of naval and air attack.

Things military are problematic for Ireland. Neutrality is the last sacred cow of the old republican order: born in anti-British sentiment, burnished in the absurdity of official condolences for Hitler, and maintained as a moral shield while the country climbed the GDP tables. The Irish self-image is of being everyone’s friend, welcome at every party. Who would we fight, other than ourselves?

Changing Realities

The reality is that in any major European conflict Ireland would offer a back door for infiltration, a staging ground for hostile operations, and a forward base from which to strike its neighbours — and in every case, it would still expect others to come to its defence.

Unfortunately for Ireland, those same neighbours’ patience for a conveniently cheap and self-indulgent posture of neutrality is gone. War in Europe is real. Global energy, information, and borders face clear and present threats. No nation is untouched, and none can claim immunity. In this climate, freeloading is the new pariah.

So how can Ireland, without abandoning neutrality as a cultural glue, chart and fund a course that makes a clear statement about its defence policy and international role? Is there a way that works with the economy rather than against it? Is it possible to build a modern defence capability that serves Ireland’s needs and, incidentally, those of its allies, without entering formal alliances?

Defence Tech

For a rich, small but technologically advanced country like Ireland, the field of DefenceTech is wide open. There are sectors of direct relevance to the country’s economy where a specialised capability would provide both much-needed sovereign capacity and, conveniently, strategic value to neighbours in a crisis.

Three stand out:

• Cyber-security / Data Defence — Cyber talent, NCSC, Locked Shields participation → deployable digital defence units for allies.
• Smart Maritime Drones — GUARD project, VRAI, Cathx Ocean → autonomous surveillance platforms for seaborne threats.
• Quantum Communications Infrastructure — research on satellite quantum key distribution → secure, sovereign quantum links for allied networks.

In a previous piece I suggested using Ireland’s windfall tax from Apple to build an advanced chip manufacturing cluster. The reasoning is the same here: invest in technology to create both a local and wider strategic benefit, so neighbours see a more outward-looking and engaged Ireland.

In this case, Ireland could launch a specialised Data Defence Initiative — ostensibly to protect its own infrastructure, but in practice pushing the boundaries of the sector with useful, deployable cutting edge technology. Non-threatening by design, but uncompromising in capability.

Reframing
Sacred cows such as neutrality, republicanism, or the moral authority once claimed by the Catholic hierarchy may be frustrating when their time is ending, but they have to be managed on the way to irrelevance. By pivoting to become a DefenceTech specialist, Ireland isn’t opting out of defence — it’s upgrading. It’s not abandoning neutrality — it’s defending intelligently. Crucially, if war came and alliances became essential, Ireland would have something important to contribute. Any accusation of freeloading would be defused by smart, specialist contributions that respect neutrality while upholding security.

The Reckoning
Neutrality is admirable only if you are prepared to take the pain and accept the consequences. Modern Ireland, with its outward-looking population and high immigration — free of historical baggage — is unlikely to accept that pain in the face of war or strategic attacks on global infrastructure. Above all, neutrality does not absolve responsibility when a nation has built wealth without funding its own defence, and has quietly relied on others. It is time to reconcile its moral posture with its substantial material footprint.

No more rhetoric from an Ireland of the 20th century, rejected time and again. Instead, Ireland can lead with its technology sector, its educated workforce, and its ingenuity — becoming a quiet backbone of specialised defence.