Paul Davis

Again, a country that was neutral and has only recently joined NATO.

That's a weapon of war.

But it's not about a weapon of war.

It's about a weapon of defense.

And a weapon of defense is the cybersecurity that we have huge interest in, data centers that we need to protect, intelligence that we need to protect.

So it isn't about inventing a new military arms industry.

It's using the industries that we have and looking at how they support ourselves, first of all for ourselves from a defence perspective, but also about where they can actually be exported as well.

Let's take it even a stage further, not just the RAF.

Let's look at the fact that we rely, for instance, on our rescue, search and rescue.

We actually have a third party providing that service.

We don't even provide that service ourselves from a government perspective.

When as an island nation, you would assume that the government would be providing that service.

We outsource that service.

It's short-term thinking, thinking that value for money is about cost, not about what we're trying to develop as a social society, but also the fabric of that society that underpins it, the infrastructure that's required.

One of the things – and I was at the Oireachtas Committee on Defence and I said that we need to have a basic sovereign capability question.

If we are unable to support it ourselves after the end of the contract and unable to build the capability to get the most from it, then we probably should not be buying it.

We should be thinking in that way.

So when we buy a contract, when we buy equipment, we have to be thinking how do we build the capability for ourselves to be able to support this ourselves.

after and when it's finished in terms of a contract.

That's long-term thinking.