Interesting reading in this review, not least of which is a piece on the DoD. Defence policy has been politically dominated since independence. This policy takes no meaningful account of real world threats, has no balanced budget allocation that results in

Organisational decay and loss of capabilities. The majority of Irish people have confidence and pride in the DF, however our defence policy undermines that confidence & pride because it does not provide for proper national security. The policy is justified on the

Basis of budgetary constraints and to some extent our ‘neutrality’. Over the years there has been no real critique of this policy decision and we have drifted into dangerous territory. If a genuine emergency erupted due to Brexit, in particular because of a changed

Situation in NI then we would be woefully unprepared, never mind cyber threats etc. Underpinning the flawed policy to date is the Dept of Defence. The success part of the policy is UN Peacekeeping,allowing capacity & capability building to an extent, but overall

There has been a decline of the whole defence organisation. Ultimately, the policy is unbalanced and has failed the men and women of the defence forces and the people of this state. Significant change needs to happen.