Is it time to join Nato

If WW3 happened those boats would not get anywhere near us. It’s not realistic. Even if that suicidal plan worked, what good would a small Russian force with little equipment achieve in Dublin.

Investing in self sufficiency in agriculture and energy would be a far far better use of the money.

Of course they would,the same for military transport aircraft,

We are already spending tens of billions on other areas,the defense forces are only looking at 2-3 billion to increase our capabilities.

Should Ireland join Nato ?

NO ...

... because 2% of our GDP will need to go to military waste/folly AND we will be dragged into foreign wars.

AND a quarter of our country is missing, lets focus on getting it back before we look at other countries problems.

Our peacekeeping missions around the world are viewed as a success and we should be proud of that fact.

We do have Guinness and some good whisky, there must be a lot of sitting around and socialising for NATO when there's no wars on.

Yeah. 2-3 now then another couple more. Then only 4-5 so we could add on and maintain what we got for first 2-3...

We already do have black hole which swallow everything we toss in it. Just imagine how can we reduce some of waiting lists if we toss another only 2-3 billion to HSE to increase our chances to live little longer. Investing in prolonging life expectancy beats investing in killing machines and toys for big boys.

Get call of duty and enjoy your wars.

"So where would you like the British Army bases to be located NOW, to protect Ireland in any future conflict."

Nowhere. There is no need. You did not mention little detail when you went on about Norway. That Norway is about 45x further away from UK than Ireland if we disregard NI. If we count NI then Brittish are already here.

Exactly. So you propose to have two black holes instead of one? As if we could afford it.

So throwing 2-3 billion on military expenditure will solve what exactly?

Nothing is the answer.

It will improve our ability to monitor our skies and waters more effectively, better SAR ability around the whole island,we could be more effective in drug smuggling detection ,and Fisheries protection,.

It's a win / win ,

Imagine having pride in our defense forces and their abilities

If WW3 kicks off properly then why would Russia decide to divert resources away from the front line, and take time out to invade Dublin when, as you said yourself, the US wouldn't even have the capacity to get here because they'd be focused on the war effort. Never mind the fact that even if the US was too busy to care about Ireland, they'd very much care about the opportunity to take out large numbers of Russian troops exposed on sea transport on their way to Ireland.

Ireland is not on the radar of any potential invasion. NATO membership makes sense for former soviet countries who Putin might see as targets to rebuild the empire. Joining NATO just puts Ireland in a position to be pulled into wars that don't involve us.

We're geographically distant from any current potential aggressors, and have the natural protection of being an island. We have no major natural resources or strategic value that would make us a target in a major war. We have no historic connection that some dictator with delusions of grandeur could use to justify an invasion to reclaim (other than the UK, but if they got to that stage of dictatorship then NATO is in trouble). We have a huge amount of soft power economically, culturally and through the influence of our diaspora who hold a huge amount of sway in both American political parties.

There is just no chance of us coming under attack, and even less chance of the US, UK and Europe not coming to our aid if somehow it did happen. If we join NATO however we first become obliged to divert public funds away from important services like healthcare and education and into a black hole of military expenditure that helps nobody, while secondly we'll also be expected to send Irish people to die in distant wars if the worst comes to the worst.

The pros of joining nato is to protect us from a non existence chance of being invaded. Negative is we have to get into wars protecting other nato members that are realistically at risk of invasion ( Baltic countries). If I was Finnish maybe I would say it would be a good idea to join as it was part of the Russian empire and has a border with russia but for us no.

Also Nato is a damaged brand. Alot of countries don't like it and see it as a threat.

There is also a lot of "West Brits" who are peddling this as they don't like Ireland's independent descion of being neutral in world affairs. They would rather us be a little Britain and stick our oar into other nations affairs so they can feel more at home in Ireland.

Ok here are some questions for you and the other "little Irelanders" -

• Does Ireland benefit from being part of the EU
• Does Ireland benefit from being an open and democratic country with Western type freedoms

If the answer to any of these is yes -

• Does Ireland have any responsibilities to the other members of the EU as a result of the benefits received
• Does Ireland have any responsibilities from the benefits it receives from being an open and democratic country with Western freedoms

If the answer to any of these is yes -

• please identify how Ireland current meets these responsibilities