Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 September 2025
189. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence to report on the State's participation in NATO's Support and Procurement Agency; for a breakdown of all payments to this agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50990/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIreland's relationship with NATO is conducted through Partnership for Peace (PfP), of which Ireland has been a member since 1999. Participation in PfP is seen as fundamental to Ireland being able to meet its obligations in providing professional peacekeepers for international crisis management and peace operations and in enhancing the Defence Forces’ interoperability with other professional military forces as part of that, as evidenced by the Defence Forces participation in peacekeeping missions such as UNIFIL in Lebanon and KFOR in Kosovo.
The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) is an agency of NATO, headquartered in Luxembourg, which primarily carries out logistics support and procurement activities for NATO member states and partners.
Ireland is not a member of the NSPA and cannot procure from this agency but given our involvement in the KFOR mission in Kosovo, our military personnel do benefit from medical services provided by the NSPA. The payments detailed below relate to these medical services specifically the Role 2 medical facilities (mobile, field-level treatment centres that provide advanced care beyond first aid and which bridge the gap between frontline care and specialized hospital treatment), training and education, and access to logistics databases and catalogues. All of these services are required to ensure that the Defence Forces can operate safely and effectively when deployed on overseas peacekeeping missions.
|
- |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
TOTAL |
|
NATO SUPPORT AGENCY (NSPA) |
€5,000 |
€3,760 |
€2,500 |
0 |
€206 |
0 |
€6,003 |
0 |
€2,100 |
€2,100 |
€21,669 |
Also, Ireland participates in the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG), established in in 2022 to coordinate and enhance military aid and support for Ukraine in response to Russia's illegal invasion, Ireland is a member of the UDCG’s IT Coalition, led by Estonia and Luxembourg. Under this Coalition, Ireland has contributed €12m exclusively for the procurement of non-lethal IT equipment in order to assist Ukraine to build Communication and Information Systems for the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces within a secure and reliable ICT infrastructure. The lead countries for this project uses the services of the NSPA to manage procurement on behalf of the IT Coalition.
