Time to admit defeat, scrap the navy?

We need, schools, new hospitals,, a really big new prison,, we need to fix our potholed roads,, we do not need navy boats, or fighter jets.

But we do need one really big plane,, maybe a second hand C-17 or similar type craft ,, or even a civilian aircraft that was refit / repurposed for use as a military troop carrier plane.

We should never need to beg other air forces to bring home Irish Citizens from conflict zones when things go tits up.. 

Some countries need or must have a navy,, they have large overseas territories to look after, in some cases its the leftover remnants of long gone empires.

We Irish have no overseas territories to look after,, and No, I do not think it is our job to make sure Spanish fishing boats have the right size nets.

This is a discussion forum, we are discussing the Irish Navy,, just because my views differ from yours, you bring out the "Trolling" word.

I should flag your post,, are you really trying to shut down discussion ?

I would be in favour of an EU defense force, where every member of the EU chips in,, and if that was to mean we give up our neutrality, I would be ok with this.

And as part of this EU defense force, we where asked to beef up our army and navy and even air force, this is fine by me.

But if Ireland stays Neutral,, we have no need for gun boats or fighter jets. And joining NATO should never be considered.

I'm not saying don't buy boats. But we don't need destroyers or frigates etc. Missiles on shore can protect us from invasion, then patrol boats for fishery protect. Nothing will keep drugs out.

LOL the Swiss have a bigger Navy than us!

As an island the sea is our biggest natural asset. Guarding it should be our first military priority even if that means cutting the army down.

There are other reasons for privatisation. For a start neo-liberal governments like to transfer tax money from the tax payer to business. A good way to do that is to under fund the service you want to privatise, make reforms that make it worse and then throw up the hands and say “privatise”! The problem is, though, for certain core services,the things that are hard to put a monetary value on like saving lives or providing core infrastructure, it tends not to work out long term. Look at the U.K. to see how bad it has gone for them with everything from transport to energy. Some things should not be in the public sector, some things should not be in the private, but done by the state. The problem in Ireland is a belief that neutrality means we do not need defence, which is untrue.

It will be interesting to see what the new head of Army Design does they could recommed less managment with only a handfull bases throughout the island for the Army

Not going to happen. NATO is the supreme military alliance in Europe, now more than ever. The PfP is the methodology to include non NATO EU members in activities.

The EU is all very well as a bureaucratic platform to share the economies of scale of bulk research and procurement, but it is not a military body and in the wake of the Ukraine war - and it has to be said the strong presence of the UK in the material support of Ukraine - I daresay an operational EU military command is further away than ever.

Fisheries and piracy are one thing, warfighting is a whole different ballgame.

i was in England a couple of years ago, I was in Bristol and my friend lived in Oxford. I wanted to get the train to visit him. It would have cost about £200 return, to do a journey not much more than Dublin to Belfast. I hope we change course soon. I don’t think FG are quite as corrupt as the British Tories, who know exactly what they are doing and know it is destroying their countries infrastructure, but do not care as long as their pals make money.I do think, however, that FG are blinded by ideology on the one hand, and like to think they are high rollers as well . Alas FF do not seem to have a strong enough counter narrative and I have little faith in SF, they are inexperienced in government, too populist and have not put enough blue water between themselves and the provos campaign .

Nobody talking about improving pay & morale. Thats whats killing the place.

Pay.

Respect for a work life balance.

Pensions appropriate to the nature of the career.

Opportunities to develop and progress with hard work.

Adequate staffing appropriate to the task.

= good morale and no problem recruiting and retaining.