Sir, – Last week, the Government published its priorities for the upcoming six-month presidency of the council of the European Union, with security identified as a key focus. Yet, despite repeated commitments to strengthening national security, defence expenditure today represents a smaller share of total Government spending than it did 19 years ago, when Europe enjoyed a far more stable security environment – just 1.27 per cent today compared with 1.38 per cent in 2007. Remarkably, it has taken four years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for Ireland to reach even this level of investment.Furthermore, the €1.7 billion allocated for capital investment over the next five years amounts to only half of the Department of Defence’s own estimated capital requirements. As a result, key equipment programmes for the Defence Forces are being diluted, delayed and stretched across lengthy timelines. The consequences are already evident. Under the National Development Plan, the Government is not funding any new naval vessels over the next five years. Likewise, Ireland’s new sonar capability will only be rolled out to half our vessels, with the shortest-range sonar variant being purchased from the selected contractor. These decisions leave us dependent on foreign powers to undertake certain security operations in our sovereign waters and our skies, that we are unwilling to fund ourselves. This lack of ambition is evident across all different equipment types from planned ground based air defence to aircraft.At a time when Europe is rearming at pace and at scale in response to both emerging and long-standing security threats, Ireland appears content to talk about security rather than investing meaningfully in the capabilities required to deliver it. While our European partners strengthen their armed forces and critical infrastructure, the Government and the Department of Public Expenditure are not prioritising investment resulting in a big underfund of essential capabilities.If this approach continues, our vulnerabilities compared with our partners’ will get easier to exploit as Europe’s adversaries seek out the weaker links. – Yours, etc,AIDAN O’CONNOR,Glasnevin,Dublin 11.