Opinion

If we are not prepared to defend ourselves we should outsource our security

The question as to whether as a country we consider ourselves worthy of securing remains unanswered in the Government’s response to the Defence Forces review

Army personnel taking part in an exercise at the Glen of Imaal in Co Wicklow. Photograph: Eric Luke

Phillip Quinlan
Tue Jul 19 2022 - 00:00

The financial crash in 2008 had some interesting knock-on effects. The moratorium on recruitment and pay freezes in the public sector were significant stories on the nightly news and current affairs programmes. The Defence Forces were no exception, yet the irony was that we were still able to recruit at the time as we were below our agreed strength.

As those of us who are old enough to remember will recount, the bite in that recession didn’t really draw blood until maybe 2009 or 2010 – all of the talks and agreements had to be thrashed out between government and the public sector groups and representative bodies. I remember this time in the Army vividly for several reasons. I was doing what was arguably one of the most rewarding things one could do, training officer cadets in the Curragh, and it was around that time that I realised that we as a country had a strange relationship with security and defence.

The chief-of-staff at the time did a roadshow around all Defence Forces installations, explaining to us what the material impact would be and what it might mean for us operationally and financially…where he could. We in the cadet school were unable to attend the chief’s brief in the Curragh so we had to get a follow-on brief from one of the senior officers. I didn’t fixate on the hit to our pay packet or if we would have to roll back overseas deployments. I had one question on my mind that I had to ask: did the government think it was necessary to have a defence capability and did it think the Defence Forces were an integral part of that apparatus?

Like those memes online say, once you see it, you cannot unsee it, it was the same for me after asking myself that question, do we take ourselves and our security seriously?

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It was common for all of us in the Defence Forces to encounter citizens who would question the need for an Army, make fun of an Air Corps with no fighter jets and even ask if we had ammunition in our rifles. After maturing a little these things didn’t get a rise out of me anymore, but it did make me think. In 2010 we were telling ourselves that we were valued and respected, that we would fight to ensure that we would still keep recruiting even though An Garda Síochána were going to suspend taking in new trainees in Templemore. I wasn’t worried about respect for me or the organisation, I was beginning to question how seriously we took our own security as a State and as a people.

On a summer day in 2010 I sat on the side of my bed and I looked at my uniform hanging in my wardrobe for a couple of minutes. For the first time in my career I had to compel myself to put it on. I was not angry, I just had this awful idea in my head that if the country doesn’t take security seriously, how can I take myself seriously in that uniform?

That was the day I knew it was time for me to move on. I took my officer’s commission and command very seriously, and the simple logic followed for me that I had no right to command the men and women of the Defence Forces if I didn’t see a logic in what I was doing.

After a few years of getting myself ready to exit I submitted my papers and went out to the private sector. Apart from learning a whole new skillset and language, my new job allowed me to look back at the Defence Forces in a new light. I was able to detach myself from the culture and being a part of it, and instead I asked questions of it like I would for any operating model assessment.

I totally appreciate why my former colleagues will talk about respect, esteem, pay and conditions. Those issues are very real and material for those currently serving. I now look at it from a different perspective. The individuals who make up a business unit usually don’t have to advocate for their own existence if that business unit is deemed to create a value or benefit for the organisation as a whole, and if it contributes to the overall strategy then it is funded and maintained accordingly.

Noting the government’s response to the Commission on the Defence Forces, my thinking has not really changed. Some of my old colleagues will not agree with me, but I do not take issue with the current Government, previous governments or the Department of Defence.

Ultimately this is a question for all of us. As a country do we consider ourselves worthy of securing? In the same way that we put a lock on our door or password on our phone, do we think our people and our economy are worthy of securing?

If the answer to that is yes then we need to ask ourselves the next question like any operating model assessment; are we best positioned to provide that service in-house or should we outsource? We already have an agreement of sorts in place with the RAF to secure our skies, so why not make it official and widen the scope of the contract?

Political parties in government ultimately want to stay in government, and they are well within their rights to deliver on the issues that are important to their constituents. If security and defence are not something we want to deliver in-house then we can outsource, but to whom – Nato, the EU?

Just like I matured not to be annoyed by how frivolous we can be about our own defence, I think it is timely, on the centenary of independence, that we all mature a little and ask ourselves the big questions. Are we a serious State that ought to be defended? Do we need a national defence and security policy as well as a coherent foreign policy? If the answers to these questions are yes then our Defence Forces people won’t need to get on the radio and television or speak through their spouses to air their grievances. This question would be addressed as part of a serious operating model for a serious country.

Phillip Quinlan is a management consultant and former Army officer.

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