Opinion

Patrick Murphy: Simon Coveney has become a liability to the Dublin government

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy is an Irish News columnist and former director of Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney.  Picture Mark Marlow.
Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney. Picture Mark Marlow. Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney. Picture Mark Marlow.

The Skibbereen Eagle is alive and well and living in the Dáil.

The Eagle, a local newspaper in Skibbereen, West Cork, ran a famous editorial in 1898, warning that: "We will still keep our eye on the Emperor of Russia and on all such despotic enemies, whether at home or abroad.”

Last week, another Cork man, Foreign and Defence Minister Simon Coveney, also lost the run of himself. He echoed the Eagle by warning Russia about its Atlantic naval exercises. Russia later said its ships would relocate outside Ireland’s exclusive economic zone, but its ambassador confirmed that it was an Irish fishing organisation, rather than the minister, who had secured that compromise.

Since Mr Coveney referred to “the European Union Coast”, rather than “the Irish coast”, perhaps the Russians were somewhat confused that Cork is no longer in Ireland.

Or perhaps they were even more confused by what Ireland calls “neutrality”.

US planes are allowed to refuel at Shannon on their way to various wars and US and British warships are welcome to exercise off Tory Island. Russian ships are unwelcome 240 miles from Cork.

If that’s Mr Coveney’s concept of neutrality, it is not surprising that he thinks Ireland no longer has a coast.

He has become something of a liability to the Dublin government. Last year he appointed Catherine Zappone as special UN envoy without advertising the job, or telling the taoiseach.

In what he called “a moment of carelessness”, he also attended a “serious breach” of social distancing rules in his own department where staff were photographed holding drinks. (Anything Boris can do…)

Then he got in a row with the chief of Ireland’s defence forces for meeting Russia’s ambassador and later had to apologise. The same day, former female members of the military who alleged abuse and sexual assault, walked out of a meeting with him, saying it was a waste of time.

What makes all this important is that Mr Coveney, the most error-prone member of cabinet, is about to take delivery of a major report. It is expected to recommend a huge expansion of Ireland’s military spending by a minimum of €1.5 billion.

Dublin’s media have been primed to proclaim that Irish defence forces cannot protect the country. (No one has asked who might want to invade Ireland.) So the suspicion is that Mr Coveney intends to fudge neutrality (even more) and enlist Ireland in an EU army supporting NATO. One TD this week described Ireland as “the soft underbelly of the EU”.

Obviously Ireland needs protection against cyber attacks. Its health service has already suffered a major computer virus incursion. But expanding military capability will do nothing to prevent that. Nor will it stop an invasion.

For example, including its reserves, China has 3.3 million members in its armed forces, more than the entire adult population of the 26 Counties.

A more sensible alternative to military expansion would be to buy a large white flag and iron it regularly.

Ireland needs an army in support of the civil power. It does not need, as the report will apparently suggest, jet fighters, 12 naval warships and air defences for land forces. (The report may also recommend re-naming the Air Corps as the Irish Air Force. That will put the fear of God in the Chinese.)

Opposition to the erosion of neutrality has been limited in the Dáil. SF’s post-Brexit love-in with the EU has restricted it to saying that Ireland needs the military capability to defend “our borders”.

Like Mr Coveney, the party presumably believes that EU membership means that Ireland’s eastern border runs for 3,700 miles from Finland to Greece (including a frontier with Ukraine). So Ireland will need all those fighter planes.

Traditionally there has been massive popular backing for neutrality on the basis that Ireland should support neither NATO nor Russia. The size and source of that support in the months ahead will tell us all we need to know about Ireland’s future.