Messages

Amazing take.

Alternatively I could use....

Over 100,000 civilians massacred, including old women and children, and your abiding gripe is Allianz sponsor the GAA.

But that would be ridiculous.

Allianz are the biggest institutional funder of the war.

For the GAA to say the UN are wrong, that it's a holding company of Allianz funding the genocide, not the entity that sponsors them so all os good, is actually more offensive than the sponsorship deal.

But ultimately if the GAA can't/won't pull out of a deal at the recommendation of the Ethics committee, why have an ethics committee?

If you don't get a licence will your County teams be expelled from competitions?

I assume so and assume the worst run will get papped out for a year to lay down a marker.

It's always about him.  Egomaniac.

Apparantly Michele Reiner did the photography for the Art of the Deal. So he could have been a human and still made it about him.

Can "He" just get to the punchline. Good lad. Can't wait.

There is no punchline.

We buy new fighter jets.

A Rusdian bomber flies in or near Irish airspace.

We launch said fighter jets.

Then what?

The Irish fighter jets intercept the Russian bomber.

If you think there is no need, do you advocate the Irish government informing the RAF that they no longer require their services?

That undefined intercept word again.

I'm saying if the sole purpose of a €500m fighter plane purchase plus maintenance is simply to fly beside a Russian bomber and go 'yep, that's a Russian bomber', is this worth the spend? Primary radar does that. Which we have bought.

As it happens I think we do need to spend a lot more, but we are clearly being targeted by arms companies with their doomsday scenarios. So do we spend that €500m on fighter jets or on cyber? Or on the Navy to protect against drones, drug smugglers and protect cables? Double the ARW, or create a tier 2 special forces?

Floor is yours, why spend almost half of the increased budget on fighters?

The budget will be bigger than 500m.
https://www.military.ie/en/public-information/publications/report-of-the-commission-on-defence-forces/

I know. That's why I said it.

Rob Reiner and his wife Michele found dead in their Brentwood mansion. Rumoured murder by their son[history drug addiction/ street living]

Director or producer of some decent movies such as The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, This is Spinal Tap, A Few Good Men and Misery

He did the best of a load of types of film, in a row, over about 8 years.

Spinal Tap - invented the mockumentory
 
Stand By Me - best coming of age film

The Princess Diaries - best kids fantasy

When Harry Met Sally- best romcom

Misery - best psychological thriller

A Few Good Men - best courtroom drama


Deserves to be put up there with the best

Can "He" just get to the punchline. Good lad. Can't wait.

There is no punchline.

We buy new fighter jets.

A Rusdian bomber flies in or near Irish airspace.

We launch said fighter jets.

Then what?

The Irish fighter jets intercept the Russian bomber.

If you think there is no need, do you advocate the Irish government informing the RAF that they no longer require their services?

That undefined intercept word again.

I'm saying if the sole purpose of a €500m fighter plane purchase plus maintenance is simply to fly beside a Russian bomber and go 'yep, that's a Russian bomber', is this worth the spend? Primary radar does that. Which we have bought.

As it happens I think we do need to spend a lot more, but we are clearly being targeted by arms companies with their doomsday scenarios. So do we spend that €500m on fighter jets or on cyber? Or on the Navy to protect against drones, drug smugglers and protect cables? Double the ARW, or create a tier 2 special forces?

Floor is yours, why spend almost half of the increased budget on fighters?

There is no need for me to define 'intercept'. You and I and anyone else reading this knows what it means. Why you pretend otherwise, only you know.

If you think that it's not a good idea for Russian bombers to know that they will be met by fighter jets when they enter the airspace of another country then do say so.

Are you happy to continue outsourcing this service to the British or can it be cancelled altogether?

Also, which arms companies are targeting Ireland with doomsday scenarios? Since it's 'clearly' happening can you let us all know?

Will you get real.

You want us to buy fighter jets, which I am not opposed to, but refuse to say why.

I would prefer not to 'outsource it', but if we could really tighten up on priorities in the short term I would long finger it. It's not the most important gap to plug. We need anti drone weapons and a beefed up cyber defence first.

You appear to have gone from -

A - having fighter jets is a bit pointless and arms companies that sell them are targeting us with doomsday scenarios.

to

B - we need to prioritise other things first as the British can cover us in the air for the time being but it's better to be able to do this ourselves.

Am I reading this correctly?

Position B is reasonable and a perfectly valid point of view. I just don't know how you started at A and got to B.

I never said it was pointless. I (pointlessly) asked you why you think they are needed. What does 'intercept' actually mean? If we aren't going to shoot one down, and we aren't,is a fighter jet needed to simply note? Again, we should have some, but your scenario is fuzzy.

I am perfectly happy to believe we have allowed the Department of Finance to crush defence spending (ARW not given agreed pay rises, Paschal nixed low interst EU loans the Dept of Defence wanted to draw down and so on) to the point where they have created a crisis that needs emergency remidation and that there is a clear jostling to get us to buy extravagent kit from x and y that should be ignored.

B is a fair summation of my position.

Can "He" just get to the punchline. Good lad. Can't wait.

There is no punchline.

We buy new fighter jets.

A Rusdian bomber flies in or near Irish airspace.

We launch said fighter jets.

Then what?

The Irish fighter jets intercept the Russian bomber.

If you think there is no need, do you advocate the Irish government informing the RAF that they no longer require their services?

That undefined intercept word again.

I'm saying if the sole purpose of a €500m fighter plane purchase plus maintenance is simply to fly beside a Russian bomber and go 'yep, that's a Russian bomber', is this worth the spend? Primary radar does that. Which we have bought.

As it happens I think we do need to spend a lot more, but we are clearly being targeted by arms companies with their doomsday scenarios. So do we spend that €500m on fighter jets or on cyber? Or on the Navy to protect against drones, drug smugglers and protect cables? Double the ARW, or create a tier 2 special forces?

Floor is yours, why spend almost half of the increased budget on fighters?

There is no need for me to define 'intercept'. You and I and anyone else reading this knows what it means. Why you pretend otherwise, only you know.

If you think that it's not a good idea for Russian bombers to know that they will be met by fighter jets when they enter the airspace of another country then do say so.

Are you happy to continue outsourcing this service to the British or can it be cancelled altogether?

Also, which arms companies are targeting Ireland with doomsday scenarios? Since it's 'clearly' happening can you let us all know?

Will you get real.

You want us to buy fighter jets, which I am not opposed to, but refuse to say why.

I would prefer not to 'outsource it', but if we could really tighten up on priorities in the short term I would long finger it. It's not the most important gap to plug. We need anti drone weapons and a beefed up cyber defence first.

Can "He" just get to the punchline. Good lad. Can't wait.

There is no punchline.

We buy new fighter jets.

A Rusdian bomber flies in or near Irish airspace.

We launch said fighter jets.

Then what?

The Irish fighter jets intercept the Russian bomber.

If you think there is no need, do you advocate the Irish government informing the RAF that they no longer require their services?

That undefined intercept word again.

I'm saying if the sole purpose of a €500m fighter plane purchase plus maintenance is simply to fly beside a Russian bomber and go 'yep, that's a Russian bomber', is this worth the spend? Primary radar does that. Which we have bought.

As it happens I think we do need to spend a lot more, but we are clearly being targeted by arms companies with their doomsday scenarios. So do we spend that €500m on fighter jets or on cyber? Or on the Navy to protect against drones, drug smugglers and protect cables? Double the ARW, or create a tier 2 special forces?

Floor is yours, why spend almost half of the increased budget on fighters?

Can "He" just get to the punchline. Good lad. Can't wait.

There is no punchline.

We buy new fighter jets.

A Rusdian bomber flies in or near Irish airspace.

We launch said fighter jets.

Then what?

A nuclear attack by Russia is unlikely. Economic attack is more likely unless we have deterrence. There is no excuse with the budget surplus.

We should be investing in cyber security and if necessary for defence purposes.

But back to a question asked earlier, how many jets do we need?

Having three isn't worth my arse full of warm snow, we need at least 20 and a few nuclear warheads hidden in the bogs of Offaly and to come out of the ground like in thunderbirds.

Do you think that aircraft that switch off their transponders and enter Irish airspace should be intercepted?

Define intercepted?

Do you seriously not know what it means?

I don't. But a big Russian bomber enters Irish airspace. We launch a Viggen. Then what?

The Irish jets intercept them. Go  and look it up. There's a good boy.

He repeats. Define intercept in this scenario,

A nuclear attack by Russia is unlikely. Economic attack is more likely unless we have deterrence. There is no excuse with the budget surplus.

We should be investing in cyber security and if necessary for defence purposes.

But back to a question asked earlier, how many jets do we need?

Having three isn't worth my arse full of warm snow, we need at least 20 and a few nuclear warheads hidden in the bogs of Offaly and to come out of the ground like in thunderbirds.

Do you think that aircraft that switch off their transponders and enter Irish airspace should be intercepted?

Define intercepted?

Do you seriously not know what it means?

I don't. But a big Russian bomber enters Irish airspace. We launch a Viggen. Then what?

A nuclear attack by Russia is unlikely. Economic attack is more likely unless we have deterrence. There is no excuse with the budget surplus.

We should be investing in cyber security and if necessary for defence purposes.

But back to a question asked earlier, how many jets do we need?

Having three isn't worth my arse full of warm snow, we need at least 20 and a few nuclear warheads hidden in the bogs of Offaly and to come out of the ground like in thunderbirds.

Do you think that aircraft that switch off their transponders and enter Irish airspace should be intercepted?

Define intercepted?

Shels and Shamrock Rovers both lost last night. Not looking good for qualification.

And both lost again last night. You could excuse Shels, even if Palace sauntered through their defence at will, as they were playing a team from one of the main European leagues. Rovers was a bad loss - is the Icelandic league so superior to ours? I wonder what kind of spin will Eamon Sweeney try to put on this?

No, it isn't. Although Bredablik are by a distance the best team there. Rovers are shattered. They have had no post season break two years running, playing solidly since Feb 2024. Other LoI clubs are starting pre season, Rovers still have a game to play to finish theirs. They ordinarily win that.

What size is the defence force currently?

Is there any point spending a whole pile more for what will be the same result- if the US/Russia/Brits/France or whoever decided to invade tomorrow they'd blitz us,  (South Armagh aside )if we fired x amount of money at it, they'd still blitz us unless a friendly power decided to help us out..

There is a whole heap of things short of full invasion need defending against though. Russia *will* act the bollocks during the EU presidency and as we saw last week, we need to be able to react better.

Not one of you can fill out that form.

And that's the reason why responsible countries spend on defence.

Nobody is saying spending on defence hasn't been sufficient and the navy in particular is understaffed.

You can agree we need to open the checkbook while simultaneously recognising a clear and orchesated campaign of scaremongering