A Conservative MP has questioned the use of Royal Navy assets to support security arrangements around an informal meeting of European defence ministers in Ireland, arguing that restrictions associated with Irish neutrality could limit the usefulness of any British deployment, the UK Defence Journal understands.
John Cooper, MP for Dumfries and Galloway, raised the issue in a letter dated 28 August to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, after reports that Dublin had requested Royal Navy support for the meeting in Wicklow.
Cooper wrote: “I am aghast at media reports from Dublin that their Government has requested support from the Royal Navy for security, but that any vessel involved must stay outside their 12-mile territorial-waters limit.”
In a social media post accompanying the letter, he said: “Neutral Ireland portrays their gunboat George Bernard Shaw protecting an EU defence event there next week… but they’ve asked for help from the Royal Navy… who must get close enough to be much use! I’ve asked the Defence Secretary why we’re paying for this idiocy.”
The meeting is due to take place in Wicklow as Ireland holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Cooper’s letter asks whether the Defence Secretary will attend and whether the UK will reconsider the deployment of British forces in support of the event.
He linked his concerns to a reported incident near Dublin Airport in December, when uncrewed aerial vehicles were detected close to the airport as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived.
Cooper wrote: “While the Irish Defence Forces spotted the UAVs, they had no ability to interdict, lacking any meaningful air-to-air or surface-to-air capability.”
He acknowledged that Ireland possesses a small number of RBS Bolide short-range air-defence missiles, but argued that these would provide only limited coverage against fast-moving or higher-altitude threats.
The MP also questioned the value of positioning foreign warships outside Irish territorial waters. He wrote: “This insistence that foreign warships remain outside Irish limits hampers their effectiveness. The Royal Navy is being asked to do a bad job. To add insult to injury, British taxpayers are footing the bill for this bodge.”
Cooper went on to argue that Ireland’s long-standing policy of military neutrality has not been matched by sufficient investment in its own defence capabilities, despite recent moves to increase spending.
He said: “The Republic makes great play of its neutrality but has for too long not funded this in the way that, for example, Switzerland does.”
The letter also refers to expected French involvement in security arrangements around the Wicklow meeting. Cooper said the French frigate Aquitaine was expected to remain 12 miles from the Irish coast and questioned how useful its air-defence missile system would be from that position against small or fast uncrewed aircraft.
He wrote: “Her Aster surface-to-air missiles will have the range to cover Carlow, but against low and fast UAVs may be a sledgehammer when a scalpel is required.”
Cooper suggested that smaller-calibre naval weapons might be more suitable against some uncrewed aerial threats, adding that foreign ships would still have to be positioned sufficiently close to be effective.
The MP also raised the broader question of military cooperation between Britain and Ireland, asking the Defence Secretary whether the UK should reconsider the current relationship.
He wrote: “Will you look again at the deployment of any British forces for this ‘informal’ chit-chat next week? It is both an affront to Britain and unaffordable expense, especially when our involvement is subject to damaging caveats?”
Cooper then asked: “More substantially, will you bring to the House details of a reset of our military relations with Ireland?”
The letter ends with a broader criticism of Ireland’s defence posture and the degree to which British forces might be expected to assist during an emergency.
Cooper wrote: “We can no longer afford to let the Irish walk on our cane. Will the Marine Nationale bear the cost of protecting those cables and pipelines? Do you agree that rather than RAF Typhoons and F-35 Lightning IIs scrambling – at gulping expense – to intercept anything airborne in the Republic’s airspace, it should be over to the Armée de l’air et de l’espace to cover IDF blushes?”
He concluded: “Ireland must accept neutrality without funding is simply freeloading.”
If an area defence destroyer can’t guard a target 12 miles away it would not be much of an area defence asset.
Ahem.
He wrote: “Her Aster surface-to-air missiles will have the range to cover Carlow, but against low and fast UAVs may be a sledgehammer when a scalpel is required.”
12 miles is a long way to be providing air defence against UAS against a cluttered shoreline.