Why we need our Defence Forces

Brig Gen Ger Aherne was the General Officer Commanding the Athlone-based 4th Western Brigade – then one of three brigades in the country’s Defence Forces - when it was disestablished in November 2012. In this second instalment of a two-part opinion column in the Westmeath Independent, Brig Gen (Retd) Aherne, a Kiltoom resident who retired earlier this year, outlines the importance of the Defence Forces and exposes Government 'spin' on the personnel numbers at Custume Barracks.

'Why do we need the Defence Forces anyway?'

This is a question every serving or retired member of the Defence Forces has probably heard at a bar counter at some stage. The quick reply is to ask who would do the work done by the Defence Forces if it wasn’t there. 

To that, the inquisitor might respond: “Sure, what do ye do?”

Personally, I think I would look very silly if I told someone his or her job should be disbanded while, at the same time, admitting I had no idea of what it is that they do. 

The Defence Forces is significantly to blame for this deficit in the public awareness of our roles. Our public relations in connecting with non-military people have generally been sub-standard. 

But let’s look at some tangible reasons why we have a Defence Force. At home, the Defence Forces has three Government mandated roles, what is called the Conventional Role, Aid to the Civil Power (supporting the Gardai, etc) and, thirdly, Aid to the Civil Authorities (fire and prison strikes, essential services etc.)

The forces are central to the internal security threat response, global, regional and local terrorist threat interdiction, cyber security and critical national infrastructure security. In addition, overseas we serve with the UN, EU, NATO and the Org anisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the latter presently taking the lead in Eastern Ukraine.

During the three decades of trouble on this island, between 1969 and 1998, the role played by the Forces in providing armed support to Gardai, protecting vital installations, and bomb disposal, for instance, has never been written. 

Do you think we would have had a continuation of foreign direct investment coming into the Republic of Ireland during those years if it was seen as unstable and a worrying place in which to invest? 

The Defence Forces were central to the perception, and reality, of the Republic of Ireland as stable during those challenging years. 

I recently led an EU military mission in Somalia to help bring stability there and in the Horn of Africa. Irish people might not regard this role in a distant African country as having a bearing on our day-to-day life here.

Such a view doesn’t take into consideration that 32% of the world’s oil passes the shores of Somalia in tankers each year en route to or from the Suez Canal. Piracy has been rife for years off Somalia and at times this threat to the tankers resulted in their instead having to route around the Cape of Good Hope thus incurring enormous additional cost.

This disruption by piracy, launched from Somalia, drives up the price of oil and gas. This directly impacts on industry and in every fuel forecourt in the country. It is important to join the dots. 

During the foot and mouth scare, in 2001, the Defence Forces was among four groups - along with Department of Agriculture officials, customs officials and Gardai - which successfully sealed the border with Northern Ireland. This prevented foot and mouth disease from travelling south.   

The possibility of something similar happening again is real, particularly as two large agricultural industries – poultry and pigs – are concentrated significantly in the border region.

I have no memory of foot and mouth disease, avian or swine flu, respecting a border. Eddie Downey, the President of the IFA, should perhaps take note in view of his recent public comments in light of Minister Coveney’s additional portfolio.

However, the closure of many Army barracks and Garda stations along the Border means we have reached a situation today where I, personally and professionally, doubt if the border with Northern Ireland could be sealed in such a crisis. Security corporate knowledge of the border region is diminishing in the uniformed services as a result of these closures.

This is also worth considering in light of the upcoming referendum on Scottish Independence and the possibility of the UK withdrawing from the European Union after its proposed referendum in 2017.  

Ireland and the UK did not sign up to the Schengen Agreement, which removed border controls between European states. If the UK leaves the European Union, we are faced with the possibility of an international border three miles north of Dundalk, or four miles from Ballyshannon. Passport controls would be obligatory into and out of our State. How is that going to be done? 

Decisions to reduce the strength and organisation of the Defence Forces have been taken anonymously by people without examining whether they serve our strategic economic and security interests. If a Master’s student was asked to produce a thesis on strategic policy formulation in Ireland it would be a very thin volume.

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Exposing Government and Department spin on barracks figures

If you check the recent Dáil record you will find some examples of attempted 'cleverness’ in the answers to parliamentary questions on the numbers stationed at Custume Barracks, Athlone. 

Let’s go through the facts.

On November 30, 2012, there were 1,441 permanent positions at the barracks. This included personnel who relocated from Longford barracks in 2009, and from Cavan and Mullingar in 2012.

At midnight on November 30, the Fourth Western Brigade was disestablished. The 14 military units which had been based in Athlone were thus reduced to four - three permanent units and one reserve unit. 

The number of permanent Defence Forces personnel in those four units is 834. Subtract 834 from 1441 and you get 607. 

However, in a written answer to a question in the Dail on July 17 it was stated that of the claimed 995 personnel supposedly stationed at the barracks, 219 were either “bi-located or MP /Med Det in all 2 Brigade bk locations” (direct quote). 2 Brigade is headquartered in Dublin. In my forty two years of service I have never known a soldier to be officially designated as bi-located!

These 219 are not permanently located in Athlone, they are Attached Personnel from Dublin based units. The term, and meaning of Attached, is known and understood to all serving and retired soldiers. It is not a permanent posting. Based on these figures, the number of permanent personnel in Athlone is only 776. Even the suspect figure of 995 admits a loss of 456 permanent jobs at the barracks.

Despite this reality, Athlone and its hinterland was seduced in 2012 by a public statement from the then Minister, and the Department of Defence, that there would be 'almost 1,000’ posts in Athlone. The exact figure imposed on the Defence Forces at the time was 971.

Concurrent with the disestablishment of the Fourth Western Brigade in 2012 was a reduction in the strength of the Defence Forces from 10,500 to 9,500. As I have outlined, 607 - or over 60% - of that reduction visited on Athlone. 

One of the reasons given by the Minister and the Department of Defence for the reduction of one brigade was that it was necessary due to a reduction in the total numbers in the Defence Forces to 9,500. This is a fatuous argument.  

The three-brigade structure was also in place during the 1970s and into the 80s when the Defence Forces had strength of 17,000. If you follow the rationale which ties the number of brigades to the number of serving personnel, clearly we should have had four or five brigades when the total number in the Force was 17,000!

It smacks of the 'intensification’ argument of Dublin City Council recently at a Dail Committee on the Croke Park concerts debacle and the steely retort of Padraic Duffy of the GAA regarding the fact that there was no such intensification argument when Lansdowne Road was being developed or the use of Croke Park if the hoped-for hosting of the Rugby World Cup in 2023 or 2027 comes to pass.

One of the benchmarks used in the reviews and reorganisations of the Defence Forces over the last 22 years was the example of New Zealand, a country with a similar population and resources, which reduced its forces and downsized its structures in the 1990s.

These decisions have since proven to have been spectacularly misguided, and the architecture of the Defence Forces in New Zealand has been restored. 

In militaries, it is critical to create and maintain structures. How governments choose to populate such structures is dictated by circumstances, security and available budget envelopes.

Disestablishing structures is always flawed strategy. It does not allow for emergencies or unforeseen circumstances.

The most immediate challenge for the Defence Forces is the upcoming White Paper setting out the policy on Defence for the next decade.

It is imperative that the White Paper contains nothing which would impede the re-establishment of the Fourth Western Brigade or prevent the Defence Forces from reaching its full potential.

Perhaps politicians, national and local, but especially the military family, should take note.