Funding to the Department of Defence has been increased by 9 per cent to address its recruitment deficit and to fund the delivery of four new helicopters and a new long-range military radar system.
The record €1.6 billion package will support the recruitment of 850 permanent members of the Defence Forces, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said in the Dáil, as well as help with the purchase of new equipment.
Separate funding from the National Development Plan of €340 million has been earmarked to help acquire a military radar programme and allow investment in maritime surveillance and cybersecurity.
The Department of Defence signed a contract in September with a French procurement agency for five deployable Thales radar systems, which include long-range capabilities.
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The system will provide a complete recognised air picture of Irish airspace. It will close off a historic gap where aircraft with turned-off transponders could not be tracked.
Delivery of the system is expected in 2027, with full operational capability expected by the end of 2028.
Under the five-year strategy for the Defence Forces, there is a commitment to procure four Airbus H145M helicopters during 2027 and 2028. Chambers said the allotted funding would allow those acquisitions to be made.
In the longer term, the Defence Forces has plans to acquire eight super medium helicopters but they have not yet committed to a date for delivery.
Meanwhile, part of the €5.9 billion allocation for the Department of Justice will be used to recruit 1,000 trainee gardaí. The additional numbers would bring the total strength of the force to more than 15,000 next year.
A number of ministers of justice have vowed to bring Garda numbers to 15,000 more than the past 20 years, but successive governments have faced challenges in maintaining the numbers.
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Garda Representative Association general secretary Ronan Slevin said the announcement “does very little to inspire” members of the force.
“We are under-resourced, under pressure and under huge strain and are not immune to the cost-of-living crisis that other workers are feeling,” he said.
“Successive governments have rolled out promises of 1,000 extra gardaí and yet here we are, at the end of 2026, and the dial has hardly moved on the number of gardaí on our streets in over a decade.
“So while we give a very guarded welcome to this announcement, we must again question how exactly they plan on making the job more attractive to recruits to hit these targets.”
Extra funding has also been allocated to dealing with domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, including an increase in budget for Cuan, the specialist Government agency.
More money has also been made available to increase the capacity of prisons. A total of €11.5 million in additional funding has been made to youth justice initiatives, with the National Cyber Security Centre also getting an extra €7.5 million in funding.
