Sir, – Fintan O'Toole writes that Europe needs our energy more than our troops ("Europe doesn't need our soldiers – it needs our energy", Opinion & Analysis, April 19th).
With an offshore wind resource that could power 15 per cent or more of the EU’s energy, Ireland certainly needs to step up and accelerate progress. The opportunity for Ireland is huge and has the capacity to transform our western seaboard with hundreds of thousands of jobs.
However, with this will come the enormous responsibility of safeguarding such a large portion of the EU’s energy resource. Hundreds of square miles of wind turbines and thousands of kilometres of cables will be vulnerable to attack from terrorist or state actors close to the waters where the Russian navy recently held naval exercises.
The Naval Service currently has five operational ships. By contrast, Norway has over 30 ships between its military and coastguard and six submarines (with another four on order). Its air force has over 120 aircraft.
It is clear Ireland will need to massively upgrade its naval and air capacity with ships, aircraft and possibly submarines to provide security if this huge offshore energy production is to be located in our waters.
The question is will we take this responsibility seriously and equip our Defence Forces appropriately? – Yours, etc,
DAVID GEARY,
The Strand,
Limerick.