Shane Coleman has described a new report into Ireland’s defence capabilities as “absolutely terrifying”. 

Today, Minister for Defence Helen McEntee will launch a €1.7 billion defence spending plan, which aims to modernise the Defence Forces. 

The announcement coincides with a new report by the Institute of International and European Affairs and Deloitte Ireland, which paints a bleak picture of Ireland’s state of readiness for an attack. 

“This new report says Ireland may be targeted by hostile actors next year during the EU presidency,” Shane Coleman told Newstalk Breakfast listeners.  

“It says we lack capacity to defend ourselves against such an attack; it talks about the prospect of an armed attack on the EU no longer being a remote possibility.

“And it said it would have dire consequences for Irish society; it talks about the potential for an attack on Ireland's electricity infrastructure in such a scenario. 

“It says Dublin Port is particularly vulnerable and a material event at Dublin Port would mean food would start to disappear from shops' shelves, excuse me, within three days.”

An Irish navy ship arriving into Dublin. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Shane added that the report laments that any discussion on defence issues tends to focus heavily on whether Ireland should join NATO. 

“It quotes people interviewed for this report saying it is really challenging to discuss these threats without immediately being accused of looking to raise support for NATO,” he said. 

“And they're saying quite, quite bluntly, we need to decouple those two issues. 

“They are separate issues that if you talk about making Ireland safe and increasing our defence capability, it does not mean that you support NATO.”

Soldiers on the Curragh Plains in County Kildare. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie.

Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said Ireland’s attitude to neutrality is very different to that of other European countries. 

“If you look at other neutral countries, because they are neutral because they aren't aligning themselves with other military countries, their defence spending is big because they need to stand on their own two feet,” she said. 

“Switzerland being the classic example; Switzerland has mandatory time served in the Swiss army by all adults.”

Ciara said Ireland has “head in the sands about this”, despite an increasingly polarised international environment. 

“We have our huge territorial waters,” she said.

“We are vulnerable and we are pretending we're not and every time anyone talks about defence and defending our sovereign country, neutrality raises its head.” 

Main image: Shane Coleman and an Irish soldier.