Ireland is "now at that point" where it will have to pull its weight with its EU neighbours on defence, a former chief-of-staff of the Defence Forces has said.
It comes just months ahead of Ireland taking up the Presidency of the EU Council, which will see over 200 meetings planned during the six-month period.
Mark Mellett told RTÉ's Behind the Story that the State must do more to help itself.
"We are in this together as a collective – this is not a case of just Ireland [being] a lonely island behind an island, isolated from the rest of its community," he said.
"Our very economics are dependent on our security.
"Our partnerships with our neighbours are dependent on us carrying our weight," he said.
Mr Mellett said Ireland is not a neutral country, but neutral "in the application of our military force".
"You cannot be neutral in a globalised economy," he said.
"We have interdependency in terms of trade, energy and in terms of communications."
Defence spending
Mr Mellett said increasing defence spending has to go beyond equipment.
"You can spend on capability, but you can't have a dash for trash," he said.
"You need to actually acquire the capability in a manner whereby you’re building your personnel.
"Capability is a mixture of hardware and people, so you’ve to build the skills as well as acquiring the capability in tandem – I think that’s what’s happening.
"Would we like to have been done faster and decisions made earlier? Yes, we would."
Mr Mellett added that he would see a role for the Defence Forces in security operations during the EU Presidency.
"That’s the norm and I would expect it would be the norm in terms of our time during the presidency – that there will be particular operations, where the skills and competencies of the Defence Forces will be used," he explained.
RTÉ’s Adam Maguire also joins Fran and Paul to discuss how Ireland can have a deficit and a surplus at the same time.
You can listen to Behind the Story on the RTÉ Radio Player.
You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.
