Ireland,
dealing with NATO and neutrality
Minister, how important is it for
a militarily neutral country like Ireland
to be in partnership
with an organisation like NATO?
Well, of course, Ireland has had
a traditional stance of neutrality
in the context of certain aspects
of international issues.
That concept of neutrality of course
doesn’t have any major relevance
in the fight against terrorism or
in dealing with cyber security issues,
in dealing
with some of the real threats
that Europe and Ireland
have to address today.
It's important that we are involved
in the partnership
for peace arrangement with NATO.
We’ve been there since 1999.
It ensures that we can operate
with skill levels
that NATO operates at. We can...
It facilitates us in engaging
in UN peacekeeping missions.
Insurgents in Afghanistan
have made extensive use
of IEDs
or Improvised Explosive Devices.
Ireland has unique experience
in countering this threat.
How has this been applied
in Afghanistan?
Firstly I think it’s a very
important niche area of expertise.
We provide training in that area,
as well as engaging in what
is necessary to neutralise IEDs.
Unfortunately and tragically,
it’s a skill that was developed
and honed in Ireland during
the difficulties in Northern Ireland
and the troubles that we had
over 30 years with subversive groups
using Improvised Explosive Devices.
Of course, it is largely
peaceful in Ireland now,
although we have a remnant
of subversives engaged in
what I regularly
describe as criminal terrorism.
This is still an issue though
on the island
because IEDs became a weapon
that some of those engaged
in organised crime are using.
They’re using it in battles that
gangs are fighting with each other.
So, we would still have
in Ireland today our defence forces
essentially in aid of our police force,
being called out
to neutralise these weapons.
In the region of ninety
such call-outs occurred during 2012.
NATO has experienced an image
problem in some neutral countries.
How was that played out in Ireland?
I think the Irish public very
substantially support our troops
in engaging in peace missions.
The NATO PfP arrangement
that we’re party to,
hasn’t given rise
to any difficulty in Ireland.
It would be accurate to say
that the vast majority of the public
don’t tune in to these things.
There’s always in Ireland
a very small group of people
who view these things
with an ideological perspective,
who you simply mention
NATO to and they get overexcited,
but as you know, we had
the Secretary-General of NATO
in Ireland for our defence informal.
It was very valuable
that he was able to come
to this informal meeting
of EU Defence ministers
and address issues
of mutual concern.
And it is relevant when 21 of
the EU states are members of NATO.
We’ve heard today
that a change in mind-set is needed
from a national perspective
to a more international perspective.
Do you feel the political will
is there to do that?
I think the strange benefit
of the current financial difficulties
where all EU countries are looking
as to how they can reduce
expenditure, control expenditure,
where it’s understood across
the defence areas in the ministries
that there is unlikely to be
additional funding over the next years
and there could be further cutbacks.
That’s creating a beneficial pressure
to cooperate to a greater degree.
And I think we can do
things a lot more efficiently,
use resources more wisely
by engaging in greater cooperation
than we have done to-date
and indeed by focusing on
what are the common interests
of the member states in Europe.