Sliding into a military alliance

Sir, – You report that Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister of State Thomas Byrne have criticised former president Michael D Higgins’s recent interview in which the latter accused the Government of being “less than honest” on military neutrality and of stealthily “sliding” this State into “preparatory” military alliances without putting the choices plainly before the people (“Martin rejects Higgins’s triple lock comments”, October 27th).

In response, Martin said that “we have no intention of joining Nato”, but that is not what is in play. In truth, the Irish State is in no position fiscally to fully join Nato, which expects member states to spend at least 2 per cent of GDP on “defence” – a target increasing to 5 per cent by 2035. Moreover, as a member of Nato’s Partnership for Peace, Ireland is already Nato-aligned and within its camp on the cheap rate.

The Government’s move to dismantle the triple lock on military deployment abroad is less about Nato and more about facilitating Ireland’s integration into the developing military infrastructure of the EU. Byrne’s statement that the EU “is not a military alliance” suggests he is not keeping up with developments in Brussels.

EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen and others have repeatedly asserted that the era of peace is over and that the EU must significantly recalibrate.

As your columnist Sinéad O’Sullivan has highlighted, a wartime economy is being built in Europe and militarism is gathering pace (“The Government is helping to usher in a wartime economy”, August 29th). This is the emerging alliance into which we are “sliding” without an honest national debate.

How will this work in Lebanon? The Government assures us the only way to continue our peacekeeping presence there is within an EU-led mission. Considering the shameful role the EU has adopted during the catastrophe in Gaza, would EU soldiers be welcomed by all as neutral actors? Hardly. It is much more likely that they would become part of the problem. – Yours, etc,

FINTAN LANE,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.