Departmental Policies
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Garret Ahearn (FG), Administrative Panel

I welcome the Minister of State. I also welcome the opportunity to raise the issue of defence and security procurement, in particular the importance of ensuring meaningful local participation as Ireland increases its investment in this area. It is clear that public understanding of Ireland's defence and security environment is evolving. There is growing awareness of our vulnerabilities, our responsibilities within the European Union and the reality that decades of underinvestment in defence capability must now be addressed. As this expenditure increases, it must be seen as an opportunity not only to strengthen sovereign capability but to deliver tangible economic and regional benefits across the State.
Ireland already has a growing number of indigenous SMEs operating in these areas. There is a clear need to strengthen local participation within defence procurement policy in a manner fully consistent with EU procurement rules. We must ensure Irish firms are engaged early in capability planning and delivery whether through maintenance, training, logistics, research and development, systems integration or long-term life cycle support. Early engagement with domestic industry delivers three clear benefits. First, it strengthens national resilience by ensuring critical knowledge, skills and support capacity exist within the State. Second, it delivers better long-term value for the taxpayer by reducing life cycle costs and dependency risks. Third, it de-risks the delivery of major programmes at a time when the Defence Forces increasingly require private sector expertise to support complex systems. As these negotiations progress, there must be clarity on how industrial participation measures are being embedded and how Irish SMEs and third level institutions can play a meaningful role in these programmes. This approach is also fully aligned with Ireland's obligation to contribute to the European defence technology and industrial base. Bringing non-traditional dual-use Irish companies into European defence supply chains strengthens not only Ireland's position but Europe's collective security and resilience.
There is a strong case for ensuring that Enterprise Ireland supports are aligned with the specific needs of defence and security-related innovation, including support for research and development collaboration with the Defence Forces and European partners. With the right alignment, Irish firms can scale, develop, export potential and contribute more effectively to national security objectives. We are increasing defence spending. We are already committed to buying major capabilities. The question is why would we not ensure Irish companies and our research and innovation sector benefit from that investment. We should be making absolutely sure that a proportion of this expenditure remains within the Irish economy, supporting Irish businesses, skills and local communities. That can only be achieved through a clear and dedicated local participation policy framework.
We have heard positive statements from the Government on the floor of the Dáil and in the media. The Tánaiste stated:
While Ireland does not have a traditional defence industry ... we do have industry that could have a defence application ... Irish industry should be in a position to take advantage of the significant growth opportunities in this sector.
I strongly encourage the Minister of State and the Government to do two things. First, formally introduce local participation requirements in defence procurement - make it a requirement that Irish SMEs must be involved. Second, publish a clear policy framework setting out how this will be delivered. Doing so will strengthen our Defence Forces, support Irish enterprises, deliver better value for the taxpayer and ensure that increased defence investment builds lasting national resilience.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21