Calling in the Defence Forces against fuel protesters is a huge strategic error |
The French have been blocking streets to force the hand of the state since 1789. In 2018, they blocked roundabouts in yellow vests and the government reversed a fuel tax within weeks. In France, barricades are not a threat to the republic – they are the republic. On Thursday morning in the capital of another European republic – Ireland – farmers parked their tractors and truckers their trucks on O’Connell Bridge. And so the Irish Government called on the army.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan invoked “aid to the civil power” and asked the Defence Forces to deploy heavy vehicles to remove vehicles from roads and fuel depots. Owners were warned, in language more suited to a hostage crisis than a dispute over diesel prices, not to later complain about damage caused during removal. This may be the single most damaging thing the Government could do to the case for Irish defence – and it has done it three months before assuming the EU presidency, during which defence and security for 27 member states will be discussed.
For four years, a serious argument has been building that Ireland needs to invest in its military. The Commission on the Defence Forces made 130 recommendations. It described a force hollowed out by decades of neglect, roughly 20 per cent below its already modest establishment strength. The submarine cables carrying over 90 per cent of Europe’s transatlantic data traffic run through Irish-controlled waters, effectively unprotected. Similarly, the Whitegate refinery supplies 40 per........