Joining NATO could force the Government to spend the entire cost of the MetroLink on defence every year, a renowned economist has warned. 

Ireland declined to join NATO when it was formed in 1949, on the grounds that Britain “occupies a portion of our country with its armed forces”.

In 2014, in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, NATO members agreed to spend 2% of their GDP on defence. 

Putin attends a military event. Picture by: Russian President's Office.

11 years on, the alliance has now agreed to spend 5% of GDP “on core defence requirements and defence and security-related spending by 2035.” 

As debate continues about Ireland’s relationship with NATO, economist Colm McCarthy opined that “nobody seems to have realised the huge amounts of money that we’ve saved by being neutral.” 

“It’s unusual for most people of our generation to think that we owe some of our economic success to Éamon de Valera,” he told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“[He] has a reputation for not having been very good at economic management and the country’s economic success dates from in or about his retirement when Seán Lemass finally got rid of him. 

“But de Valera did something quite clever… He kept Ireland out of military alliances, kept Ireland out of the Second World War.” 

An article about Irish neutrality in The Daily Express in September 1939, the day after World War II was declared. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Last year, the Department of the Defence was allocated €1.35 billion in the budget - a fraction of the $7 billion that the Danes, who have a similar population, spend on their military. 

Despite this comparatively low level of spending, Mr McCarthy said that “nobody cares” and Ireland gets a “free pass” on the issue. 

“An incidental consequence of staying neutral and staying out of NATO was we didn’t have to spend a vast amount of money every year on bombs and bulletins, warships and all the rest of it,” he said. 

“I think people just don’t understand the magnitude involved. 

“NATO countries are now heading towards spending 5% of GDP on the military - and I think all of them will. 

“It may take them some years to work up to that.” 

Soldiers in Kildare. Photographer: Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Mr McCarthy said that there would be a “staggering cost” to NATO membership and it would necessitate deep cuts in public spending in other Government departments. 

“At present, the amount of GDP that we spend on the military is 0.25% - that’s the figure for the current year,” he said. 

“5% would be 20 times that. 

“So, what people are talking about, if they’re saying, ‘Ireland should give up this neutrality and join NATO’, you’re talking about spending €25 billion a year, every year, on bombs and bullets.

“To put it in perspective, it would be the equivalent of building the flipping MetroLink every year.

“Which means not building roads, fixing bridges, not filling in potholes and not building hospitals.” 

In the Programme for Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael vowed to “preserve and protect Ireland’s policy of active military neutrality”, while also reforming the Triple Lock.

Main image: The Metro and an Irish soldier. Pictures by: The Mtro and Alamy.com.