Ireland Military - 2024

Military and security forces

Irish Defense Forces (Oglaigh na h-Eireannn): Army, Air Corps, Naval Service, Reserve Defense Forces (2024)

note: An Garda Siochana (or Garda) is the national police force and maintains internal security under the auspices of the Department of Justice

Military expenditures

0.2% of GDP (2023 est.)
0.3% of GDP (2022)
0.3% of GDP (2021)
0.3% of GDP (2020)
0.3% of GDP (2019)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 8,000 active-duty personnel (2023)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the Irish Defense Forces have a small inventory of imported weapons systems from a variety of mostly European countries, particularly the UK (2023)

Military service age and obligation

18-25 years of age for male and female voluntary military service recruits to the Defence Forces (18-27 years of age for the Naval Service); 18-26 for cadetship (officer) applicants; 12-year service (5 active, 7 reserves) (2024)

note: as of 2023, women made up about 7% of the military's full-time personnel

note 2: the Defense Forces are open to refugees under the Refugee Act of 1996 and nationals of the European Economic Area, which include EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway

Military deployments

130 Golan Heights (UNDOF); 325 Lebanon (UNIFIL) (2023)

Military - note

Ireland has a long-standing policy of military neutrality; however, it participates in multinational peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, as well as crisis management; Ireland is a signatory of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and has committed a battalion of troops to the EU’s Rapid Reaction Force; Ireland is not a member of NATO but has a relationship with it going back to 1997, when it deployed personnel in support of the NATO-led peacekeeping operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ireland joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1999; it has been active in UN peacekeeping operations since the 1950s

the Irish Defense Forces (IDF) trace their origins back to the Irish Volunteers, a unit established in 1913 which took part in the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921); today, the IDF is comprised of an Army, an Air Corps, a Naval Service, and the Reserve Defense Forces (RDF); the Army has two combined arms combat brigades, one responsible for military operations in the south of the country, the other in the north; the Army’s primary mission is national defense, but elements have deployed on overseas humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, and at times have assisted civil authorities and the national police by providing security at airports, foreign embassies, government facilities, and ports; the Air Corps operates a range of non-combat fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters for a variety of missions, including air ambulance, civil assistance, maritime patrol, reconnaissance and surveillance, search and rescue, support to the Army, and transport; the Naval Service’s warships are six large or offshore patrol vessels, and its roles include defending territorial seas, deterrence, maritime surveillance, protecting marine assets, and supporting Army operations; the RDF was established in 2005 and has both an Army and a Naval Service Reserve; the RDF takes its lineage from the Volunteer Reserve Force, which was established in 1929 (2023)