Waterford Institute of Technology Department of business

Licence professionnelle action commerciale inter-entreprises a l’international

Prepared by ESCUDER Matthieu
2009/2010 academic year

Thanks:

I would like to thank sincerely the university of Aix en Provence to giving me the opportunity to study abroad. It was such a great experience in an academic perspective but also in personal aspects, and during the first semester I decided to follow my studies here for one more year in order to intend a Bachelor with Honours. I really get involved in the system and I met many Irish people during this year, that’s why I would like to extend my experience for an other year to improve as much I can my English skills. I will be mainly surrounded by Irish people and I expect a lot of the year that is coming. At the beginning of the year I didn’t imagine that I will stay here but i met many time the chief of business department and I have the opportunity to follow my studies in Ireland, I don’t want to miss this chance at this stage of my career.

Contents Introduction 6 History of Ireland 7 History 7 Geography 15 Irish education system 17 Health care system in Ireland 18 Population 20 Pubs and drinking 22 Religion in Ireland 25 Irish sport and youth society 27 Parliament and government 29 Growth and early industrialisation: 1690 to 1815 30 Economy 31 Policy objective for Irish economy 32 Economy, Ireland becomes a global growth leader 32 Irish Department of Defence Force 36 The defence environment 37 Role of the Defence Forces: 39 Defence Force and the Government: 40 Permanent Defence Force 41 Duties of the chief staff: 42 National and international security framework programme 44 Outputs and targets 45 Defence force programme 45 Contingent capability outputs 46 Aid to the civil power operations 46 International peace-keeping operations 46 Fishery protection and surveillance operations 47 Search and rescue operations 47 SWOT Analysis Defence Forces 49 Defence forces objectives 50 Result objectives 50 Annually produced services 53 Defence forces, context and mandate 55 Irish army 58 Irish Army forces 58 Operations 59 Aid to Civil Power 59 Overseas Operations 60 Organisation 61 Army Brigades- Eastern Brigades: 61 Army brigades-western brigades: 62 Different schools of the Irish army 62 Defence Forces Training Center 62 The military College: 63 Command and Staff school: 63 Infantry School: 63 Officer Training Wing 64 NCO Training Wing 64 Infantry Weapons Wing 65 Cadet School 65 United Nations Training School Ireland 66 The Combat Support College (CSC) 66 Defence Forces Logistics Base (DFLB) 69 Corps of the Army 70 Combat Units 70 Combat Support Units 71 Conclusion 73 Bibliography 74

Introduction

I choose to focus my reports on the Irish army because I intend after my studies to join the military school of Saint-Cyr in order to become an officer. Then, I hope to move up the military ladder to reach a position where management of crisis situation is major of importance. Working on the Irish army and its organisation seemed to be in adequation with my objectives. By this way I am aware about how a different army is working and settled its objectives. My first report is based on the different aspects of the Irish society in order to understand the way that the Irish society is based. The two other reports are related to the Irish Defence Forces and the Irish army in which I describe the organisation and the main provided objectives. The strategic management process in the Irish Defence Forces is concerned with developing a military organisation capable of meeting the opportunities and challenges posed by the Ireland’s security and economic environment in the 21st century.

History of Ireland

History
For such a small landmass on the western edge of Europe, Ireland has had a huge impact on the wider world. In the last 2 centuries alone Ireland has witnessed a major famine which decimated its population and produced one of the largest emigrant waves ever to leave Europe. Ireland has given the world some of the most important literature of the modern era, such as the works of Joyce and Yeats. Finally in the last 30 years, the island of Ireland has been the location of a struggle between the forces of nationalism and unionism which has cost countless lives, q conflict which has been played out in front of the world’s media, and yet is one which has been difficult to end.
Since the 12’ century, Ireland has been a contested area in political, religious and military terms. There has been a continuous battle for control of the island. At time this has been an internal battle, while, more usually, the fortunes of Ireland have been linked to its proximity to, and problematic relationship with England or a British state dominated by England

The history of Ireland stretches back into the depths of time. The first settled inhabitants of Ireland were groups of hunters and fishers who travelled the short distance across the water from Scotland into north eastern Ireland during the Mesolithic.
In approximately 700bc the Gaels began arriving in Ireland, having spread across the rest of Western Europe. They, with most invaders who would follow, brought their own distinctive culture with them, but also adapted much that was specific to Ireland. This resulted in a composite system of religious beliefs and power structures drawn from both the indigenous and settler traditions. The old Neolithic gods ( tuatha) who had underpinned the Irish belief system prior to the arrival of the Gaels were adopted, and over time became identifiable as Gaelic’s gods.
The Gaels based their power structure around a monarchical system. At first the whole system ran on much localised lines. In time there developed a network of local rings forts. Each of these forts served as a centre of a local area influence for a single king or chieftain who was elected by those regarded as freemen.
In total the island of Ireland contained around a hundred small kingdoms. The small kingdoms were arranged into five bigger groupings, which form the basis of Ireland’s modern provinces: Ulster, Meath, Leinster, Munster and Connacht. At the head of this system was a single high king who would rule a province of his own, but would also exert his supremacy over the others provinces.
Despite the prosperity afforded by the Celtic trading alliances, Ireland missed out on a more fundamental advance in the first centuries following the birth of Christ. Unlike the bulk of southern and central Europe, Ireland was not invaded by the Romans
Ireland was a location for a golden age of Christianity and monasticism. The Christian mission to Ireland began during the third century ad. In a relatively short space of time, the old Gaelic religion, although still practised and retaining a function within society, was replaced by Christianity. In the wake of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Ireland, which had avoided any major contact with Rome, perversely became the centre of European Christianity Ireland became a safe haven for those who followed Christ. The monasteries were centres of learning.
One of the leading figures in the Christian mission in Ireland was Saint Patrick. He had first been brought to Ireland as a slave. After escaping, he had travelled to Gaul where he was consecrated as a bishop. In the thirty years following his return to Ireland in 432, until his death in 465, Patrick travelled the length and breadth of Ireland preaching the gospel. Patrick brought about a semblance of central ecclesiastical authority. After his ministry, the Irish church was firmly established.
The structure of the church in Ireland duplicated the power system that was already in place. St Patrick accepted the Celtic system that was based around local kingdoms which, in turn, was underpinned by powerful families and loose alliances, and adapted the church’s system of internal government around such. The bishops were located around the families who ran the small kingdoms. As a result of this nature of the church’s governing structure, the monastery became all important in Ireland.
The introduction of Christianity to Ireland at this time was accompanied by the advent of the written word. Irish society under the Celtic system, although developing a written script, which can be seen on standing stones, did not use the written form as central to its way of life. For them the oral tradition had been far more valuable. The monasteries spread throughout Europe the written word and the Latin language. While the rest of Europe slipped into the post roman chaos of terror and destruction, Ireland was thriving, Ireland internally was relatively peaceful and ordered. At this time, the religion had taken refuge in Ireland.
Peace and tranquillity could not last forever. Under the golden age of monasticism Ireland had been relatively quiet, although internal warfare and division had continued. Christianity, for all the benefits that it brought in Ireland, could not bring about any kind of central political system which would break the cycle of violence and inter monarch competition. In the eighth century the Vikings invaded Ireland. At first these incursions had been localised and had been more concerned with plunder and quick reward than with settlement. A response to this type of raid, which was a common feature of eighth century life, was the construction of defensive round towers within the monasteries. The towers were used to watch over surrounding lands. Ultimately, plunder was not enough and in 795 Ireland suffered a full scale Viking invasion. The Vikings presence had an important impact on Irish life. The modern’s towns and cities of Dublin, Waterford, and cork all originate from the time of the Vikings invasions. The cities were centres of trade, manufactories and commerce. As with the Celts when they arrived, the Vikings adopted certain native ways. They intermarried, converted to the Christianity, and when not battling with them, accepted the power structures of the Irish kingships. In 1014, the high king, Brian boru, defeated the Vikings at an infamous battle at Clontarf. It had taken the Irish 2 hundred years, but with Boru’s victory they finally saw off the threat of being permanently transformed into a Viking colony. Those Vikings who remained in Ireland following their defeat, continued to live in the cities which they had established.

The role of Rome and the Irish bishops in transforming the church is instructive when we seek to understand the advance of Normans into Ireland. With the establishment of the Normans rule in Britain in the eleventh century, the Normans had become the controllers of large parts of Europe. They were also closely linked with Rome. In Ireland, the lack of a strong central authority in the century meant that reform of the church had been, at best, patchy and incomplete. For them, the arrival of a strong outside force in the shape of the Normans might be welcome, as it would galvanize the whole situation in Ireland.
In 1166; Dermot Mac murrought, who ruled over Leinster, was nota popular king amongst his fellows. He had carried off the wife of the king of breffni in 1151, and had later blinded Mac lochlainn of Ulster as a way of taking control for himself. In 1166, he paid the price for his previous misdemeanours. He was defeated and had to flee Ireland. For a king to be beaten in battle and to be forced from his native land is not unusual in the annals. Rather than accepting defeat, or attempting to struggle back to prominence from a position of weakness by making local coalitions. He travelled in England and France to find help in order to return in Ireland and take the control. He promised royal favour to any who should help him to recover his state.
He would open Ireland to her powerful neighbour across the Irish Sea, and in doing so would form relationships which, although not completed and formalised until later centuries, would radically alter the nature of the traditional Gaelic power structures.
In 1170, Dermot took Dublin. It was the time of conquest and during this summer Strong bow landed in Ireland with 200 knights and 1000 Norman’s soldiers. MacMurrough and his army also joined them. They marched to Wexford town. The Vikings who lived there marched out thinking they could defeat Dermot and his army. They were amazed to see how well equipped the Normans were. Within a day Wexford was captured. After the death of Dermot, King Henry considered it wise to proceed to Ireland and assert his own sovereignty.
At the synod of cashel, which Henry 2 had instigated on his arrival, the Irish hierarchy agreed that henceforth in Ireland the divine office should be celebrated as in England. All this period was called the lordship in Ireland.
The lordship in Ireland ended officially on 18 June 1541 with an act of parliament. Henry 8 had already severed his allegiance to the Pope under whom, since the Anglo-Norman invasion, the English king held the lordship of Ireland. In 1554, pope elevated Ireland into a kingdom. Plots against the crown proliferated in Ireland with consequent insurrections, sometimes mounted by Irish, sometimes in collaboration with France, Spain,
In 1536, parliament aimed a blow at Gaelic culture and society by enacting a law to promote ‘English order, habit and language’. The Gaelic Irish were forbidden to speak anything but English.

Tudor Ireland:
The Tudor revolution in England began as a desperate search for a means to allow king Henry 8 to divorce his wife. It ended with the creation of a new kind of European state. To affect his divorce, the king renounced the spiritual authority of the pope and himself became head of the Church of England. In addition, he was determined to centralise power and to reduce the influence of provincial magnates. This had obvious implications for Ireland. The English of the pale were great enthusiasts for the new regime. They plotted against the Earl of Kildare, who was duly summoned to London. He left his son Lord Offaly (better known to history as Silken Thomas), in charge with instructions to make a show of force if he himself was dismissed from office. Not only was Kildare dismissed but he was clapped in the tower of London, from where premature rumours of his death reached in Ireland. Silken Thomas’s show of force, originally designed to prove yet again that only the Kildare family faction could rule Ireland and that cost of suppressing them would be prohibitive, now turned into outright rebellion. This was quickly crushed by an English army. In 1536, Kildare died, in 1537, Silken Thomas was executed. Henry the king gained the control of Irish Church by the same means he had used in England. He dissolved monasteries and remitted their revenues to the state... he also made himself formally king of Ireland in 1541: his predecessors had contented themselves with the title Lord of Ireland. He obliged the Gaelic chieftains to acknowledge his sovereign power by surrendering their lands to him under English legal title. After his death, his daughter encouraged colonisation and plantation. Queen Elizabeth was to reign for 45 years. The first years of that reign brought a constant push of new English settlers into Gaelic and Anglo Normans areas. East Ulster was planted in the 1560’s and 1570’s. the new English state, now a growing European power nervous of the unconquered island at its back door, was about to lock horns in a deadly tussle with Gaelic Ireland.

The nine years’ war: From the 1540’s on, there had been tension between the new English state and the Gaelic world. More and more the steady incursions of the new English pressed upon Gaelic territory. Most of all, this was true of Ulster. It was here that the world of the Gaelic Irish, over a thousand years old, made what was effectively its last stand.

Early Stuart Ireland: When Queen Elizabeth died childless in 1603, the throne passed to her cousin James 6 of Scotland who thus became James 1 of England. In the first half of the 17th century, therefore, the great majority of Irish land outside Ulster still lay in catholic hands. Moreover, even if Ulster itself there was a large population of catholic tenants and labourers.
The New English Protestants controlled the Dublin administration, the Irish parliament and the law

Catastrophe:
In October 1641, the catholic landowners of Ulster took advantage of all this turmoil and revolted against the Dublin administration. They hoped to effect at least a partial undoing of the plantation of Ulster. In the meantime, events in Ulster had taken an ugly turn. The rebellion quickly turned into a vicious assault upon the settler population by embittered and dispossessed natives. There were massacres and atrocities. Protestant churches were desecrated; corpses were exhumed and flung about. There were three main groups in Ireland. First, the Ulster Protestants, who were determined to resist any further depredations against them. Second, there was the royal administration in Dublin, the third group, the confederates, were divided between the Gaelic and the old English. A parliamentary army was sailing for Ireland to settle matters there. Its leader was Oliver Cromwell.

Cromwell:
Within two months, Cromwell had the eastern half of the island substantially under his control. He was the first figure in Irish history to act upon the assumption that Catholics were undifferentiated, homogeneous group and should be treated accordingly. He dispossessed every catholic landowner in the country. The cromwellian plantation set the pattern for Irish land ownership until the early 20th century.

18th century:
Throughout the 18th century Catholics were seen as a threat that might rally in support of a Stuart attempt to regain the English throne. The government enforced a severe code of penal legislation against them. The Presbyterians also suffered religious disabilities but on a much lesser scale. Power was concentrated in the hands of the small protestant ascendancy.
The American war of independence had an important impact on the Irish politics; the American example encouraged the protestant ascendancy to press for a measure of colonial self-government. In 1782 the Irish parliament was granted independence. Ireland was now effectively a separate kingdom sharing a monarch with England, but the Dublin administration was still appointed by the king.
The French revolution, with its ideas of equality and liberty, had a major impact on Ireland. ‘The society of the united Irishmen’ was founded in 1791 to press for radical reform. Its members were mainly Presbyterians from the north. The united Irishmen rebelled in 1798, aiming to unite Catholics and Protestants. After the defeat of the rebellion, the London government decided to unite the British and Irish parliaments.

The modern Ireland: In 18223 a catholic barrister, Daniel O’Connell, established the ‘catholic association’ to press for full liberty for Catholics and rapidly converted it into a political mass-movement. His success forced the London parliament to grant catholic emancipation in 1829.
In the 1840’s the young Ireland movement was formed. The most influential of its leader was Thomas Davis who, like the united Irishmen, expressed a concept of nationality embracing all who lived in Ireland.
The latter half of the 19th century was characterised by campaigns for national independence and land reform. ‘the Irish republican brotherhood’ was founded in 1858, also known as the fenians. The fenians, a secret society, rejected constitutional attempts to gain independence as futile. The fenians staged an armed uprising in 1867. The rising was no more than a token gesture and was easily put it down.
Arthur Griffith developed a new political party in the period 1905-1908 known as Sinn Fein, ‘we ourselves’. The Sinn Fein had close links with the RIB. The Dublin labour dispute of 1913 produced another group, ‘the Irish citizen army’, which was socialist but also separatist.

The Sinn Fein representatives now constituted themselves as the first Dail, or independent parliament, in Dublin. The British attempt to smash Sinn Fein led to the war of independence of 1919-21. In December 1921 an Anglo-Irish treaty was signed and 26 counties gained independence as the Irish Free State. Six Ulster counties had been granted their own parliament in Belfast in 1920 and remained within the United Kingdom.

The Irish habitat
On the globe we look for the smaller of the 2 larger islands off the northern western coast of Europe, amounting in area to some 30 000 square miles, or about one two-thousandth part of the earth’s land surface. It belongs to the tattered Atlantic fringe of Europe, the largest of some 5000 islands and islets lying along the western side of Great Britain in the archipelago which many Irish people refuse to call the British Isles.
Both major islands are structurally part of Europe. Their present insularity is recent in terms of human history, coming less than 10000 years ago, and the seas surrounding them are shallow but fateful flooding of the continental shelf.
Some geographers seeking general laws have claimed that island peoples, because of their insularity, are conservative and culturally homogeneous, but others have discovered that they are precocious and culturally diverse cause islands are accessible from all directions. Ireland’s external relations, whether cultural, commercial or political, have been, for better or for worse, concentrated in a single direction: links with Britain. It is in the north-east that Ireland’s connections with Britain are oldest, closest and more enduring

Geography
Ireland is a small island on the fringes of Western Europe, and geography has played a very important role in its history. For centuries, many areas of the island were inhospitable. Excessive rain and rugged terrain prevented much of the soil from becoming fertile. The island was partly made up by mountains, bogs and small hills called drumlins, which were steep and unsuitable for tillage. Roughly half of the rest of the land in the country was good for farming, but not much of it was connected in large unified spaces. Small good patches were separated by stretches of barren land, which acted as barriers to the development of any large-scale agriculture. The poor land had its advantage, however. It provided for some grazing, and the more remote areas were two havens from invaders and warring factions. Specifically, there were two geographical features that have been important to the rest of Irish history. First, the north of the country is somewhat different from the south. It is ringed by small mountains in the west, and drumlins and forests along its southern border. Once inside these boundaries, however, the northern land become gentler and accommodating. Its close proximity to Scotland and northern England also made outside settlement more likely than migration from the rest of Ireland. The second major geographical feature is that the east is very different from the west. The east has gentler land, less rain, fewer bogs and mountains and greater potential for communication and trade with the rest of Europe. The west was far more inaccessible, with arable patches of land existing as margins to mountain and bog. Both of these major features proved to be dividing lines for settlement, economic development and communication as different groups started to populate Ireland.

Physical features
The island of Ireland is situated in the extreme north west of Europe. The Irish Sea to the east, which separates Ireland from Britain is from 17.6 to 192 km wide and has a maximum depth of about 2000 metres. Around the other coasts the shallow waters of the continental shelf are rather narrow and depths increase rapidly into the Atlantic Ocean. The island comprises a large central lowland of limestone with relief of hills surrounded by a discontinuous border of coastal mountains which vary greatly in geological structure.
Influenced by the Gulf Stream and with the prevailing winds predominantly from the south-west, the climate is equable and temperatures are fairly uniform over the whole country. The coldest months are January and February with mean daily air temperatures of between 4 and 7 c.

Island was separated from the European mainland in the period following the last ice age. As a result the island has a smaller range of flora and fauna than is found elsewhere in Europe.

Environment
The economy has traditionally been based on agriculture and up to the 1960’s the population lived largely in rural areas. Ireland’s location off the west coast of Europe, with high annual rainfall and prevailing south-west winds from the Atlantic, contributes to the quality of the environment. The country is largely free from air pollution and the low population density over much of the country has further helped to preserve the integrity of the landscape

Flag
The national flag is a tricolour of green, white and orange. The flag was first introduced by Thomas Francis Meagher during the revolutionary year in 1848 as an emblem of the young Ireland movement, and it was often seen displayed at meetings alongside the French tricolour. The green represents the older Gaelic and Anglo-roman element in the population, while the orange represents the protestant planter stock, supporters of William of Orange. The meaning of the white was well expressed by Meagher when he introduced the flag. He said “the white is the centre, signifies a lasting truce between the ‘orange’ and the ‘green’ and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish protestant and the Irish catholic may be clasped in heroic brotherhood”.

Emblem
The harp has been regarded as the official symbol or coat of arms of Ireland since medieval times. As such it is depicted alongside the coats of arms of a dozen or more medieval European kingdoms on a single portfolio of the Wijnbergen roll of arms compiled about 1270. The harp is found on the banners of the Irish brigades, which were formed in the armies of continental European countries during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The heraldic harp is invariably used by the government, its agencies and its representatives at home and abroad it is engraved on the seal matrix of the office of president as well as on the reverse of the coinage of the state

Irish education system
The Irish education sector is predominantly financed by the state but privately managed. A distinctive feature of the sector is the dominant role of churches at both primary and secondary levels, with many schools controlled and managed by religious communities. State involvement in the education sector is primarily predicated on equity and efficiency considerations. The social returns of having an educated society in terms of contribution to economic growth and societal cohesion exceed the private returns that are conferred on the individual. It is assumed that in absence of state intervention, the market would fail to take account of these social returns and would therefore under invest in education.
Another source of market failure relates to the funding of education. The fact that the costs of education tend to be immediate whereas the benefits accrue only over time means that individuals may under invest. If capitals markets were perfect, individuals would be able to borrow to finance their education. However, in general, private lenders can be reluctant to finance education, suggesting a role for government involvement. State involvement in education is also grounded in equity considerations that all children should have equal access to education services that are considered fundamental to future life chances.
Ireland invests nearly 6 per cent of GNP in education. This is marginally higher than the EU averages, but is still less than others countries such as Denmark. Ireland had experienced a significant drop in its birth rate over the last 30 years, but it continues to have the highest rate in the Europe.
Education accounts for approximately 13.8 per cent of total public expenditure in Ireland, well above the EU average. However, despite this, Ireland still spends less per student than most of EU countries.
Ireland invest much later than most other developed countries in free education when some education indicators show that less than one-third of the Irish population aged 55 to 64 years has upper secondary education, compared with 60 per cent in the UK or 80 per cent in the US. There have also been marked improvements in third level participation rates over the last couple of decades and a broadening of college places on offer with, for example, the development of institutes of technology alongside the more traditional university system. Rising educational attainment is expected to have a significant impact on the human capital of the labour force in future years with around 30 per cent of the labour force expected to have a third level qualification by 2001, up from 20 per cent in 1991, while this figure will have risen to 40 per cent by 2011 (CSO, quarterly national household survey)
The role of education: the concept of ‘human capital’ is based on a recognition that an individual’s or firm’s decision to invest in human capital is similar to decisions about any other type of investment.

One reflection on our Celtic past was that Ireland was regarded as an “island of saints and scholars”. Similarly, since Ireland achieved post-colonial status, there was initially from the 1920’s to the 1960,s a slow but steady increase in participation in second-level education. Figures from coolahan and from the department of education and science show that in 1966 fewer than 10000 people finished second level education. By 1979, this figure had almost quadrupled to 36000 and the increase continued to 1997, when the figure was 66000. Demographic changes account to some extent for this demand for education. Irish adolescents have considerably greater access to education than their parents. In the white paper on education, it is a stated aim that 90 per cent of school-goers would complete their senior cycle education. Thus finishing second level and going into third level is now the norm for the most Irish adolescents.

Health care system in Ireland
The Irish health care system is complex, composed of both private and public sectors that are inter-mixed. There are two entitlement categories to publicly funded health services. Category 1 eligibility implies entitlement to free medical care financed by the state. Eligibility is determined through a means test, with those meeting the criteria being awarded a medical card. About 36 per cent of the Irish population are in category 1. Free medical care services include general practitioner care, prescribed medicines, hospital outpatient and inpatient services in a public ward, including consultant services, as well as free dental, ophthalmic and aural services and appliances. The rest of the population is covered under category 2 eligibility. This group is entitled to free public hospital outpatient and inpatient services, including free consultant services, but not to general practitioner care or most prescription medicines.
Public expenditure on health care is primarily provided through general taxation, with a small proportion funded through social security contributions. Payments for private services come from out of pocket expenditure or through the insurance market. Until recently, the voluntary health insurance board held a monopoly position in the health insurance market in Ireland. Significantly in Ireland, despite full entitlement to public hospital care, a large section of the population holds private health insurance.
Health expenditure as a percentage of GNP has risen in most countries since the 1960’s. Ireland has experienced a similar pattern, although the share of health expenditure actually peaked in 1980 at 9.4 per cent before falling to 8.2 per cent in 1990 following expenditure cutbacks and the correction of the public finances over that decade. In 1997, Ireland spent approximately 7.9 per cent of GNP on health services.
The general hospital programmes consumes just under 50 per cent of total public expenditure, although this allocation has been declining over the last 20 years as the government has attempted to move resources from the costly hospital sector to the community care sector. While the proportion of public expenditure allocated to the hospital sector declined by nearly five percentage points over the 1980-99 period, the community care allocation increased by more than 6 percentage points over the same period
The increase cost of expenditure on health care has been a source of concern for most governments in the developed world, particularly in Ireland. We can see different direct causes. Improvements in the quality of available medical care through the impact of technology in research and development have proved expensive. A major reason for increasing expenditure on health care is the phenomenon of excess demand within the sector. Demographics factors, particularly the ageing of the population, are often assumed to play a major role in rising medical care costs and expenditures
Population
The size of the population has major emotive significance in Ireland, not surprisingly give the huge reduction in population in Ireland following the famine.
The population of the republic of Ireland in pre-famine days was over 6.5 million. The decline in this population size in the post-famine period is all too obvious; a fall of over two million in 20 years despite a high birth rate. Population continued to decline up to 1926, almost 50 later there was no increase on the 1926 level, when the population in 1971 still stood at only 2.978 million. Since then population size has increased by almost one million, all of this increase occurring in the 1970’s and 1990’s. After the post-famine period the population size of Ireland has constantly decreased.
The difference between the number of births and deaths is known as the natural increase and in most countries the natural increase translates directly into a population increase. This has not been the case of Ireland, where in the past the change in population has tracked much more closely the trend in migration than that of the natural increase.
In some respects demographic characteristics in northern and southern Ireland differ from those exhibited by many countries of Western Europe and are thus likely to be associated with differing sets of problems. In terms of historical backgrounds, Ireland represents the exceptional example of sustained population decline such that the combined current population size of just over five million. The actual size of population in Ireland is relatively small; the republic of Ireland has the second smallest population of the European community next to Luxembourg, while the size of the population in Northern Ireland is the smallest of the standard regions in the UK. Coupled with this, overall population density in the Irish republic is the lowest in the European standards. Moreover the levels of urbanisation are relatively low in northern and southern Ireland.
The most distinctive contemporary feature of Irish demography is the high rate of natural increase. Population data from the “population reference bureau” indicate that while most European countries exhibit natural increase close to or around zero, natural change in Ireland, although currently declining, is particularly high.
The high levels of natural increase indicate that there is considerable potential for population growth in both northern and southern Ireland, although emigration has generally led to much slower growth as well as population decline. The current population growth rates in the republic are the highest in Western Europe.
Over the twentieth century the populations of northern and southern Ireland have exhibited phases of overall decline, stability and growth, reflecting the varying intensity of natural increase and net migration.
In the Irish republic prior to 1961 the quite high natural increase was more than off-set by migration losses, but the reduction of emigration in the 1960’s and the unprecedented feature of migration gain during the 1970’s, coupled with a sustained level of high natural increase, have resulted in the substantial growth since 1961.
The effects of population growth are more difficult to assess from a problem orientated perspective and it is hard to discern government perceptions concerning the merits of population growth and related problems, particularly in Irish republic. Thus in one sense the rapid population growth in the republic during the 1970’s was welcomed and symbolised a nation able to support its population.
High and sustained rates of emigration represent a major demographic characteristic of the population of Ireland and have had a large number of socioeconomic and psychological effects. Net loss of population has been the dominant pattern since the plantations and in consequence large numbers of people of Irish descent live overseas, in the USA and the UK. Net emigration rates have been higher from the republic than from Northern Ireland. The emigration can have beneficial effects. Emigration is a response to poor economic conditions; it has been instrumental in reducing the size of the labour force and in influencing the numbers unemployed.
The pattern of population change and distribution in Ireland over this century generally reflect the processes of urbanisation and concentration. More recently, decentralisation has occurred within the metropolitan regions of Belfast and Dublin, although the trends toward counter-urbanisation and wider decentralisation are less advanced in Ireland compared with more developed western countries.
Ryan, a sociologist, has argued that ‘emigration is at the centre of the Irish experience of modernity’. It has been part of the process by which Ireland has been able to move from being a predominantly rural-based, agrarian society to an industrial state.
Ireland’s population pattern was, at least until recent years, often seen to be unusual or even unique in global terms. In the first half of the 1900’s, it was the only country in the world whose population declined, with its excess of emigration over natural increase. It was unusual in that more women emigrated than men. This combined with women’s higher death rate to produce a country with an unusual sex ratio of more men than women.
Relatively high fertility in Northern Ireland and southern Ireland has produced an age structure which is quite young by the standards of Western Europe countries, and which also, as demonstrated earlier, displays relatively high age dependency. During the 1980’s, Ireland became the most youthful country in the industrialised world, with almost a third of the population under fifteen. By the late twentieth century, Ireland was also unique in the western world in prohibiting both divorce and abortion, though marriages were dissolved through legal separation and women did travel to Britain to procure abortions. In 2005, Ireland’s birth rate remains the highest in the EU.
Population patterns in Ireland have been affected historically by a number of factors, including:
Emigration, the dominance of rural live hoods and private property relations, low levels of urbanisation, low incomes, the influence of Roman Catholic Church. The social impact of Ireland’s historically high rate of emigration has been profound.

Pubs and drinking
Alcoholic drink has long been seen by both external and indigenous observers as central to Ireland’s social life and sociability. Indeed the consumption of drink and the influence of alcohol in Irish society appear to have been rapidly increasing since the early 1990’s. Watson suggests that ‘ public drinking houses’ of one kind or another have been important sites of social, political, and economic exchange in almost every type of society. Ireland currently maintains over 8750 pub, one for every 450 of the population. Until the mid-twentieth century pubs performed many economic and social functions, from locations for trade, to transportation nodes, to bases for political and community-based organisations. In more recent time pubs have increasingly been incorporated into the broader leisure and tourism. In Ireland, pubs and alcohol have been seen both as a social problem and as an expression of national identity. Sociological research has tended to reflect this dual perception: analysis focuses either on problem drinking, and its links with poor health, delinquency and social problems, or on the role that drinking and alcohol plays in relation to group, community or ethnic identity. The pub itself is viewed as a strong site of social interaction.
Throughout the twentieth century at least the society maintained a high level of abstinence and as a predominantly catholic country was unusual in this respect. It has also been suggested that heavy drinking was a response to the authoritarianism of a church-dominated culture. It could be said then that Ireland has a contradictory and ambivalent attitude towards alcohol: “drink was both a pleasure and a curse, but the tirades against alcohol led to ambivalent attitudes and ambiguity as to whether it was a good or bad thing “
Surveys of consumption indicate the increasing importance of alcohol within the contemporary Irish society. In the 1950’s it appeared that Irish alcohol consumption levels were low than the Europe standards. The sociologist Ferriter suggests that in 1961 middle-class Dubliners spent more on drinks and tobacco than they did on housing.
The two decades from 1980-2000 saw a dramatic increase in alcohol consumption in Ireland. This was the time when per capita consumption in other countries was relatively static. The rate of consumption has since declined slightly, but Irish people are still amongst the heaviest drinkers in the world. The reasons for such a rapid increase are not easy to discern, but may be related to the relative youthfulness of the Irish population and a sustained period of economic growth. Drink is seen to be “essential as a means of initiating social contact, especially with strangers “.
In Ireland three-quarters of alcoholic drink is consumed within the confines of a public house or pub. The pub is also central to Irish sociality and society. The pub is something of an “icon of the everyday “to which most people can relate. In Irish society pubs have been closely related to everyday community life. The American sociologist Ray Oldenburg has stressed the Importance within modern Irish society of the so called ‘third place’. This is a location that is not work and not home, rather a public place where people can easily meet, relax and interact like within the pubs. These places are a major contributor to the maintenance of social capital and of healthy community life.
The pub is both the epicentre and a true microcosm of social life, reflecting the socio-economic ethos of its host community. The pub both helps to create and to reflect the society around it. Historically Irish pubs, tended to combine the sale of alcohol with others businesses, such as grocery sales, undertaking, drapery and so on that further increased their social influence. Publicans have played a central community role, for example, in providing financial services in the form of credit or loans. The pub has also served as a social support mechanism for men, with an environment where they can openly share personal feelings. Socially, pubs occupied a place between work and home. The pub can operate as a ‘home away from home’ or as an extension of the workplace, and provide a strong symbolic alternative to the home, for example in its acceptance of deviant behaviour such as drunkenness. In Ireland the gloomy and functional ambiance of pubs was noted in rural limerick of the 1960’ and in urban Ennis pubs of the 1980’s. Pubs have changed, they have moved closer to the image of home with TV sets, carpets, food and familiar adornments.
Pubs have tended to be associated with the consumption of particular types of alcohol, that drinks have tended to be various forms of beer. Drink beer is cheap, egalitarian, masculine, and social. Wine and coffee, until recently, were not an important element of Irish pub consumption.
Social relationships in the pubs are intimately linked to social relationships outside and play a key role in reinforcing men’s position of control and dominance in relation to girlfriends. Sociologists have noted that pubs have tended, until recently, to exclude women and also that they may be associated with gendered attitudes. Pubs have been recognised as a masculine domain. Women were effectively excluded from most Irish pubs until the 1970’s.there are strong links between pub and masculinity. In 1960’s rural limericks a young man was initiated when he took his first drink in a public house.
Pubs are the site of extensive social interaction. Irish pubs have been noted for their particular type of oral culture, termed ‘slagging’ in Ireland. Pub drinking in Ireland has been closely associated with social control and that this is at variance with other European cultures where alcohol is seen as a vehicle of celebration and relaxation. The pub is recognisable as a semi-public but highly regulated social space with its own codes of behaviour.
Pubs both help to constitute and to reflect inequalities. Some sociologists detect a ‘distinct class pattern in their usage’ and are able to identify ‘middle class’ and ‘working class’ pubs.
There have been significant changes in both the extent and style of alcohol consumption and the nature of the pub in the years since the early 1990’s, a number of which have been alluded to above.
The central position that alcoholic drink has within the Irish culture has inevitably helped to determine responses to social problems, such as alcoholism, poverty and drink-driving that are associated with it. Since at least the mid-nineteenth century there have been public and state concerns about a range of drink-related issues such as underage drinking, binge drinking, public drunkenness and violence, and linked issues such as suicide, alcohol’s impact on the health system and public order.
As with many aspects of Irish social life, the issue of alcohol has inevitably been connected to arguments in relation to modernisation. One perspective suggests that alcohol usage and modernity are counterpoised to each other: as a society modernises it reduces its consumption of alcohol. There is evidence that this view has been prevalent in Ireland at certain historical points.

Religion in Ireland
Ireland was a particularly religious country. One of the first impressions of the country that marks it out as different from other western societies is that the Catholic Church is a strong and active force in everyday life. O’Toole remarks that when it comes to belief in the existence of the soul, in life after death, in heaven, in prayer, the Irish score so much higher in surveys than the rest of the developed world as to seem not part of that world at all.
With its tag as ‘the island of saints and scholars’ there has been a perception that in some ways Irish people are naturally religious. Historically, there have been notions that as a ‘Celtic’ people, the Irish have some sort of affinity with superstition, spirituality, magic and religious.
There is a tendency to see the development of Irish religion as reflecting a move from a ‘traditional’, highly devotional society to a ‘modern’, increasingly secularised one. The nature of religious belief and practice in Ireland has been very dynamic over the last two centuries and more. For example, it was only with the rise of the catholic middle-class in the late nineteenth century that mass attendance grew from its mid-century rate of approximately 35 per cent to its turn of-the-century level of 90 per cent.
The power of the Catholic Church growth in the period between the famine and the 1980’s.
Many factors affected the development of the churches in post-famine Ireland:
-the decline of the landless cottier class due to the development of new land tenure arrangements before, during and after the famine.
-the nationalist political movement towards development of a separate national identity
-increasing urbanisation and integration into a modern and Anglophone society.
-the successful centralisation and bureaucratisation of the various churches into more efficient administrative organisations

The 1920’s to the 1950’s has been identified as the age when ‘devotional Catholicism’ peaked and it saw the popularisation of practices such as pilgrimages to Marian shrines, the building of grottoes. It was also the time when the institutional church in Ireland was perhaps at its most influential.
In the early 1980’s Ireland was presided over by a repressive and sexually obsessed church. The churches did have significant ideological and social power in this period.
There has certainly been a sea change in the nature and position of all churches in Irish society in recent decades. The turning point is usually identified as the early 1960’s, when change in the churches at the global level, as manifested, for example, in Vatican 2, combined with a period of unprecedented economic growth in Ireland and a new era of openness to international investment and influence. The main religious denominations are organised on all-Ireland basis. They are as follows: the Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church has four ecclesiastical provinces, each with its own archbishop. Each province consists of a number of dioceses, of which there are 27 in all. The Catholic Church is closely involved in the provision of education and health services. The Irish Catholic Church sends missionaries to every continent. Today there are over 4500 Irish missionaries working in 85 different countries.

The church of Ireland: The church of Ireland is a protestant Episcopal church, an autonomous church within the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church is organised into 12 dioceses. The church is actively involved in education and social services.

the Presbyterian Church: It is a protestant church of the reformed tradition with a strong emphasis on the authority of the scriptures in the life of the Christian. the Methodist church: The Irish Methodist church is an autonomous body with its own president and secretary. Irish Methodism has developed a wide range of social work activities, mainly through its missions in the larger cities; they provide facilities for the elderly and the needy.

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Irish sport and youth society
The lifestyle of the average Irish person has changed dramatically in the past 30 years. From being a catholic, conservative and rurally dominated society, Ireland has embraced Europe with an enthusiasm that is possibly not reflected in any other member state. Ireland is now in the throes of becoming a more liberal, pluralist and indeed wealthy state.
Adolescents growing up in Ireland today are experiencing a very different type of society than their parents would have experienced and their attitudes are likely to be determined from the mores of this current era.
Ireland received substantial funds from the European regional development fund to bring the infrastructures in Ireland up to European norms. The country during the 1990’s was on the back of an economic boom and financial returns to the exchequer rose dramatically. The average industrial wage continued to rise above inflation, so the lot of the average worker improved.
Working conditions have improved through the introduction of a statutory maximum working week of 39 hours and a guaranteed minimum wage to all employees. With certain exceptions, such as emergency personnel, each citizen is now legally guaranteed the time for leisure activities.
The leisure and lifestyle patterns of Irish adults were influenced by the norms of their times. In particular, sports such as the traditional Gaelic’s games would often have been the only ones available to them as they grew up and so these dominated the sporting interests of a number of generations.

As a resulted of increased demand, the availability of participative sports, both in terms of facilities and variety, has mushroomed in Ireland in recent years. One significant development in the 1970’s was the opening of the national college of physical education in limerick. Actually the University of Waterford assured sporting and health lectures. In tandem with this development, there was the introduction of a broader curriculum of sports schools. This was also facilitated by physical developments such as the building of state-supported community schools, a number of which had swimming pools, whilst most other schools built were provided with varying levels of sports facilities.
Until well into the 1980’s, the Gaelic athletic association and their main sports, Gaelic football and hurling, were unchallenged in terms of playing numbers and spectator support. However, the 1980’s and 1990’s saw an unprecedented boom in other sports such as soccer, basketball and golf. Over the period 1990-1999, the number of full members in Irish clubs increased by 60 per cent from 139000 to 220000. In general, facilities, variety and expertise have all improved in recent years. The perception of the political importance of sport also evidenced by the designation of sport as a full mistrial portfolio in June 1997.
In general, the most widely played sports; however, are not international sports. The sports with the greatest following are Gaelic football and hurling, and these are played almost exclusively in Ireland. Many sports are organised on all-Ireland basis and the performance of sportsmen and women from both parts of the island are followed with great interest throughout the country.

Gaelic football, hurling and camogie are amateur sports, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association which was established in 1884 to promote and develop national sports. Gaelic football is a high scoring and exceptionally exciting field game, similar to rugby or soccer except that the ball is round and can be played with the hands. Hurling can be played on the same field as Gaelic football and the rules are almost the same. The main difference is that hurling is played with stick and ball. All Ireland finals are played at Croke Park in Dublin, the country’s largest sport stadium.

Parliament and government
Ireland is a parliamentary democracy. The national parliament consists of the president and two houses: a house of representatives and a Senate. The functions of the president, House of Representatives and the Senate derive from the constitution of Ireland and law.
The president
Under the constitution, the president is elected by direct vote of the people. Every citizen of thirty-five years of age or over is eligible for the office. The president’s term of office is 7 years. A president can be re-elected once only. The president is head of the state only and does not have executive functions. The constitution gives to the president certain powers that make him in effect the guardian of the constitution.
The president has certain discretionary powers. First, the president may, after consultation with the council of state, an advisory body to the president, refer any bill to the Supreme Court for a decision as to whether it contains anything repugnant to the constitution.
The supreme command of the defence forces is vested in the president.
There is no Vice-president of Ireland.

Parliament
The sole power of making laws for the state is vested in Parliament. Government policy and administration may be examined and criticised in both houses; but under the constitution the Government is responsible to the ‘dail’ alone. In the passage of legislation the primacy of the Dail is clearly shown in relation to Money Bills, on which the Seanad is empowered only to make recommendations and these must be made within 21 days.
Dail Eireann
At present Dail Eireann have 166 members. Members are returned by the forty-one constituencies into which the country is divided.
Seanad Eireann
The powers of the Seanad, as defined by the constitution, are in general less than those of the Dail. It has complementary powers with the Dail in broad areas such as the removal from office of a president or a judge, the declaration and termination of a state of emergency, the initiations of bills. Public utilities
The Electricity Supply Board is responsible for all electricity generation and supply. A post and Telecom Eireann provide mail and telecommunications services respectively. Irish Gas Board is responsible for the supply of natural gas. RTE, the radio and television network runs the national television and radio service.

Growth and early industrialisation: 1690 to 1815
At the time of the battle of the Boyne the Irish economy was predominantly rural; it was no longer a woodland society. Population stood at a little under 2 million, and was growing at a historically high rate of at least half a per cent per year. The country was an important exporter, especially of grain, beef, butter and wool. Almost half of all exports went to continental Europe, notably to France. Land was owned by perhaps 10000 landlords, and six-sevenths of the land was held by Protestants. The potato had been introduced early in the seventeenth century, but was only an important part of the diet of the poor. Potato did not keep well, and were typically used from august to march in conjunction with oats, milk and butter. In few areas peas and beans were still cultivated intensively
Economy
The Irish economy is very open, with a domestic market of around 3.5 million people it is heavily dependent of trade, exports of goods and services alone amount to almost 80% of GNP. The rapid pace of development and industrialisation in recent decades has been due in large measure to policies to make Ireland an attractive location for overseas investment.
Despite the gradual decline in the relative importance of agriculture in the past few decades the sector still remains one of the most important indigenous industries in the country. Agriculture accounts for 8.1% of GDP, 13.8% of employment and (food and agricultural products) for 21% of exports in 1993. There are approximately 170000 farms and the average size is 26 hectares, the vast majority are owned and operated by farming families. When those engaged in agriculture related industries, particularly food-processing, are included the contribution of the sector to overall employment is about 16%.
Over half the value of agricultural production is exported. However, for cattle and beef production the export proportion is higher, with over 80% of production going abroad. An increasing proportion of agricultural output undergoes processing before export. For example, live exports of cattle now account for approximately 16% of cattle and beef exports, compared to over 60% in the mid-1960.

The land tenure system is one of owner occupation; the great majority of farms are run by farmers themselves with some help from their families. The primary aim of land policy is to ensure that agricultural land is, as far as practicable, in the management or ownership of those best fitted too work it to optimum national advantage.

The small amount of industry at independence in 1922 was highly concentrated in Dublin and the main ports. Major initiatives were taken in industrial policy in the early 1960’s. As well as creating an investment climate to encourage export-oriented companies to establish in Ireland, a concerted effort was made to spread the benefits of industrialisation to all parts of the country. Membership of the European Union in 1973 increased the attractions of Ireland as a base for manufacturing industry, while at the same time presenting new challenges to existing industry.

Policy objective for Irish economy
The balance of payments was until recently viewed as an important policy objective for the Irish economy. This is no longer the case. In a post-euro situation, with a single currency and free access to the world capital market, the direct relevance of the balance of payments to others policy objectives such as growth and inflation has declined almost to vanishing point. Participation in the common currency means that there are no longer any exchange rate implications of a change in the Irish balance of payments. Finally competitiveness has come of age as the important secondary policy objective. It covers a wider spectrum of economic variables. Attention of Irish policymakers has shifted over the past decade from traditional cost and price indicators of competitiveness to broader ranging definitions that include R&D, education, quality improvement and marketing. Taxation Subject to certain exceptions and exemptions, a person resident in the state is liable to income tax on total income. After allowances and deductions are provided for, tax is applied to remaining income at a standard rate of 27% and a single higher rate of 48%. The principal components of tax revenue are: indirect taxes, 38%; income tax, 32%; social security contributions, 15%; corporate taxation, 8%; and capital and property taxes, 4%. Economy, Ireland becomes a global growth leader “The economist” has termed it “Ireland’s economic miracle…one of the most remarkable transformations of recent times.” in just over a generation; Ireland has rapidly evolved from being one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to being one of the most successful. It has reversed the emigration of earlier decades and achieved an enviable reputation as a thriving knowledge-driven economy. According to the OECD, Ireland has outperformed all industrialised countries over the past decade. The Irish economy continues to be one of the leading economic growth performers in the industrialised world. In the five years preceding 2002, Ireland’s average annual growth was more than three times that of EU or OECD countries, and one of the highest anywhere in the world. The OECD describes Ireland’s growth performance as “astonishing”: “the Irish economy has notched-up five straight years of stunning economic performance. No other OECD member country has been able to match its outstanding outcomes in a variety of dimensions”. Ireland is now a trading nation with an increasingly global perspective. The globalisation index study, compiled by international consultants A.T Kearney, names Ireland as the most globalised country in the world, and comments that Ireland has the highest degree of economic integration among the developed economies. One of the biggest successes of the Irish economy has been ne job creation. In the past 12 years, employment has soared from 1.1 million to 1.8 million. Economic growth, more job and rising living standards, have meant the resolution of one of the country’s longest standing problems. Ireland’s economic success over the past decade can be ascribed to a range of factors, both domestics and international, which were mutually reinforcing. When the right circumstances came along, Ireland was able to take full advantage of them. Ireland entered the twentieth century with a fast growing surge of determination to take control of its destiny and re-establish its long dormant identity. Ireland needed substantially to step up investment in the economy and access the most up-to-date expertise in global manufacturing and markets. They advocated a drive to secure foreign direct investment in order to build a partnership in the Irish economy between the capabilities of Irish enterprise and the strengths of the world’s leading multinational companies. These were radical and far-reaching changes and they embraced with enthusiasm by the Irish government and business interests. Protectionist barriers came down. Controls on foreign ownership of businesses in Ireland were scrapped. In the vital area of attracting inward investment in manufacturing and services, Ireland was hugely successful, and this provided the foundation for much of the economic growth that followed. The early identification of the potential of the information technology sector as a powerhouse of wealth and job creation was a crucial factor in Ireland’s economic development and was the prime driver in enabling Ireland to create a modern economy. The multinational-owned high tech sectors in Ireland have progressed since the 1970’s and 1980’s from assembly into complex integrated manufacturing and software operations, with efficient supply chain management, high value research and development, advanced enterprise technical support and regionally centralised marketing functions. Industry in Ireland is increasingly highly skilled. In the Irish operations of Intel, dell, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett Packard, graduates account for up to two-thirds of the payroll. Intel will have invested 5 billion euro’s in its Ireland facility at Leixlip, County Kildare, by the end of 2004. This represents the largest single investment in Ireland by any multinational, the continued investment in new facilities in the Ireland site is a strong endorsement by the corporation of Intel Ireland’s key role in its future technology plans. From an Intel perspective: “Irish employees have demonstrated over the years that they are flexible and adaptable in a rapidly changing and fast moving environment.” Over the past 20 years, software has been a prime mover in spurring the single most significant transformation of the Irish economy, catapulting Ireland onto the global information and communications technology stage. It is one of Ireland’s most important and fast-expanding industries, comprising over 800 multinational and indigenous software companies, which combined annual exports in excess of 12 billion euros.in Europe, Ireland is the clear number one in software. The OECD Information Technology outlook 2002 reports that Ireland has become the European manufacturing and distribution centre for many of the world’s top software vendors., accounting for over 40% of all packaged software and 60% of all business software sold in Europe. Ireland is already a base for ebusiness activities by leading companies such as America Online, EMC, Dell, and Oracle. IBM operates an online global procurement portal in Dublin. Ireland has launched a national strategy to strengthen its position in the international digital content industry. Success in digital media needs creative minds and this is where Ireland scores, with its highly imaginative people. The injection of substantial EU funds into the Irish economy supported investment in human and physical infrastructure. Ireland made exceptionally good use of this EU funding in spurring economic growth.

Irish Department of Defence Force

The military element of the Department of Defence consists of a Defence Forces Headquarters, which is headed by the Chief of Staff. The Chief of Staff is directly responsible to the Minister for the overall management of the Defence Forces, including responsibility for the effectiveness, efficiency, military organisation and economy of the Defence Forces. The Chief of Staff is the principal military adviser to the Minister for Defence. Legislative provision enables the Chief of Staff to delegate duties to the Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations) and Deputy Chief of Staff (Support).
Military command is delegated by the Minister directly to the General Officers Commanding (GOCs) in each of the three territorial brigades (Eastern, Southern and Western), to the GOCs of the Defence Forces’ Training Centre and the Air Corps and to the Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service.

The department of defence is responsible for “the administration and business of the raising, training, organisation, maintenance, equipment, management, discipline, regulation and control according to law of the military defence forces”. The department is also responsible for the administration of pensions and associated matters under the various army pension acts. Civil defence is also a major responsibility of the department, as is the management of all state property under the control of the department.
The department of defence is different to other government departments in that, in addition to its civil service branches, it has also three military branches, headed by the chief of staff, the adjudant general and the quartermaster general. Specific duties are assigned to these principal military officers and they are directly responsible to the minister for defence for the performance of these duties.

The defence mission is:
“To provide value for money military services which meet the needs of government and the public and encompass an effective civil defence capability”
Each element of the mission statement is important. Firstly, the basic business is to provide military services. These services take a variety of different forms and are supplied by civil service, military, and civilian personnel.
The defence and security of the state are vital to national economic and social well-being and defence services are among the critical services that governments provide to the community and citizen they serve. Providing military services is a considerable public undertaking. Taken together, the department of defence and the defence forces employ over 13000 personnel country-wide. Defence is responsible for a very large land and property portfolio of over 21000 acres, principally the Curragh and Glen of Imaal, and including some 34 permanently occupied military installations. The department has military equipment and stock assets valued at some £250 million.

Government and taxpayers have a right to expect that defence manages these public resources in the best possible way. Consequently, a key focus in this strategy statement is on putting structures and arrangements in place to identify and deliver value for money.

The defence environment The security environment in Europe and Ireland has seen remarkable changes in the last decade. At the European level, the adjustment to a post Cold-War environment and the search for a common vision as to how security policies should develop have marked that period. The challenges in that regard posed by war and strife on the boundaries of the European Union itself, together with instability in the Middle East and elsewhere, have created a considerable degree of uncertainty at the international level. At the national level, where there has been considerable uncertainty over many years, the Agreement reached in the multi-party negotiations is a very positive development for peace.

Each of these officers is responsible to the Minister for the exercise of the command delegated to him. In practice, matters in relation to command are channelled through the Chief of Staff. In effect, this means that day-to-day operational control of the Defence Forces rests with the Chief of Staff for which he is directly responsible to the Minister. Its primary functions within this role are:

* Strategic Planning

* Public Relations

Strategic planning:
The role of the Strategic Planning Office is
"to research and formulate strategic advice, plans and control measures, in the area of military contribution to defence Policy, Defence Forces strategy, combat development planning and resource management, in order to provide proactive support to the Chief of Staff in his executive duties".
Stemming from this mission the Office's portfolio broadly falls into two main areas, Defence Forces strategic management & policy support and defence & security policy.

Defence force public relation:
Public Relations Section is the interface between the Defence Forces and the general public.
It communicates with the public via the print & electronic media, with schools & colleges, documentary makers & researchers and directly with the public via brochures, booklets, exhibitions, open days and via the Defence Forces website.
Role:
The role of the Public Relations section is:
To establish and maintain mutual understanding between the Defence Forces and the Public.

Role of the Defence Forces:
The Defence Forces’ mission is: “To contribute to the security of the State by providing for the military defence of its territorial integrity and to fulfil all roles assigned by Government, through the deployment of well-motivated and effective Defence Forces.”
The mission statement identifies the core activity of the Defence Forces, points to a diverse range of additional tasks, which may be assigned by Government, and emphasises the importance of Defence Forces’ personnel and the need for a flexible operational capacity.
The roles assigned by Government are: * To defend the State against armed aggression; this being a contingency, preparations for its implementation will depend on an ongoing Government assessment of threats. * To aid the Civil Power (meaning in practice to assist, when requested, the Garda Síochána, who have primary responsibility for law and order, including the protection of the internal security of the State). * To participate in multinational peace support, crisis management and humanitarian relief operations in support of the United Nations and under UN mandate, including regional security missions authorised by the UN. * To provide a fishery protection service in accordance with the State’s obligations as a member of the European Union. * To carry out such other duties as may be assigned to them from time to time e.g. search and rescue, air ambulance service, ministerial air transport service, assistance on the occasion of natural or other disasters, assistance in connection with the maintenance of essential services, assistance in combating oil pollution at sea.

Defence Force and the Government:
The President is the supreme Commander of the Defence Forces. Military command is exercised by the Government through the Minister for Defence, who is advised by the Council of Defence on all matters in relation to the business of the Department of Defence.
The Council of Defence consists of: * Minister of State for the Department of Defence * Secretary General for the Department of Defence * Defence Forces Chief of Staff * Defence Forces Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations) * Defence Forces Deputy Chief of Staff (Support)

Organisation:

The Defence Forces are organised on conventional military lines providing a sufficiently flexible structure to carry out all the roles assigned by Government. The Defence Forces consist of a Permanent Defence Force (PDF) and a Reserve Defence Force (RDF). The former is a standing force and provides the primary capabilities for joint military operations at home and combined military peace support operations abroad. The RDF provides the necessary contingent conventional military capability to augment and assist the PDF, when necessary.

Defence Forces’ Headquarters acts as the strategic headquarters for the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service and as the operational controlling headquarters for the Army.
Key leaders:

Minister for Defence, Mr Willie O'Dea T.D. (centre), and the Secretary General of the Department of Defence, Mr Michael Howard (left) and the Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Dermot Earley.
Permanent Defence Force
The Permanent Defence Force consists of an Army, an Air Corps and a Naval Service.The Army is structured into three all-arms brigades, consisting of combat, combat support and combat service support elements. Each brigade is designated a territorial area of responsibility, specific garrison locations and a recruitment area.
The Defence Forces’ Training Centre (DFTC) and Defence Forces’ Logistics Base at the Curragh Camp support the training and logistics functions for the Permanent and the Reserve Defence Force.
Defence Force General Staff

The chief of staff
The Chief of Staff holds the rank of Lieutenant General and is assigned authority and responsibility by the Minister of Defence in respect of all staff duties connected with the executive management of the Defence Forces. The Chief of Staff is responsible for Strategic Planning and Public Relations in particular. The current Chief of Staff is Lieutenant General Dermot Earley.

Deputy chiefs of staff
The remaining duties, which are more executive in nature, are delegated to the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff - one tasked with operations matters Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations) (D COS Ops) and the other with support matters Deputy Chief of Staff (Support).

Duties of the chief staff:

* The effectiveness, efficiency and economy of the military measures designed to ensure the safety of the State in accordance with Government policy. * Operational deployment of the Defence Forces as authorised by the Minister for Defence. * Operational Control of the Defence Forces as authorised by the Minister for Defence. * Executive management, organisation, training, education and control of the human resources of the Defence Forces. * Executive management and control of the logistical and other support services of the Defence Forces. * Executive management of Military Intelligence. * Financial Management in the Defence Forces. * Strategic military research, development and planning. * Provision of information, advice and reports to the Minister for Defence as necessary.Representation matters. * To coordinate and create a positive relationship with members of the media and public in general. * The inspection, assessment and audit of the Defence Forces with the object of carrying out the duties assigned to him in regard to effectiveness, efficiency and planning, military organisation and economy. * Executive management of Military Information and Communications Systems. * Any other duty assigned by the Minister for Defence from time to time.

Deputy chief of staff operations:
The Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations) has responsibility for the following areas: * Operations Section * Intelligence Section * Reserve Forces Section * Training Section * Combat Support Section * Communications & Information Systems
The current D COS (OPS) is Major General Sean McCann.

The department of defence is responsible for the “ administration and business of the raising, training, organisation, maintenance, equipment, management, discipline, regulation and control according to law of the military defence forces”
The department is responsible also for the administration of pensions and associated matters under the various Army Pensions Acts, Military Service Pensions Acts and Defence Forces Pensions Acts civil defence is also a major responsibility of the department, as is the management of all state property under the control of the department

The department of Defence is different to other Government departments in that, in addition to its civil services branches, it has also three military branches, headed by the chief of staff, the adjutant general and the quartermaster general. Specific duties are assigned to these principal military officers and they are directly responsible to the minister for Defence for the performance of these duties

The defence mission is:” to provide value for money military services which meet the needs of government and the public and encompass an effective defence capability”

National and international security framework programme
The security of the state is fundamental: it is the most important objective for the defence organisation. Security has national, international, or internal aspects. Having regard to the Northern Ireland situation, and notwithstanding the agreement reached in the multi-party negotiations, the primary focus of the programme is on internal security.
Internal security is primarily the responsibility of the Garda, the Irish police. Defence, however, plays a key role in aid to the civil powers operations. There are a variety of formal and informal structures and arrangements in place at the government level, at inter-departmental level and at operational level between the Guardia (police) and military authorities.
The international defence and security context is defined by Ireland’s policy of military neutrality, the active political and operational role in support of the UN, and any possible security or defence developments at EU level. The government White Paper on the treaty of Amsterdam deals with these issues. Given that the minister for Foreign Affairs has primary responsibility in the international context, the role of the minister for defence and the defence organisation is essentially advisory or supportive of that role.

In operational terms the most significant international involvement of the defence organisation is in relation to UN peacekeeping. This represents a major operational tasking of the defence forces and a significant financial commitment.

Outputs and targets * Defence input to formulation of government policy arising from Ireland’s membership of the European Union, the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and observer status at the Western European Union. * Defence inputs to Government decisions on Ireland’s participation in international peace-keeping activities including finalisation of arrangements associated with the United Nations Standby Arrangements System * Defence contributions to internal security arrangements at government level and with the department of justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda * Deepen inter-departmental liaison contacts in relation to internal security issues * Review the role and involvement of the defence forces in overseas missions within the framework of the Standing Inter-Departmental Committee on Peacekeeping * Monitor, in consultation with the department of Foreign Affairs, emerging defence and security issues at EU level.

Defence force programme
The roles set by the government are: * To defend the state against armed aggression, this being a contingency and preparations for its implementation will depend on on-going government assessment of threats. * To aid the civil power * To participate in United Nations missions in the cause of international peace * To provide a fishery protection service in accordance with the State’s obligations as a member of the European Union * To carry out such other duties as search and rescues, air ambulance service.

Contingent capability outputs
These are concerned with the maintenance of a conventional all-arms military force. The priority to be attached to these outputs is determined by the government’s assessment of threats and the resources available. Contingent capability outputs relate to the maintenance of a level of conventional military capacity in a number of areas including combat land operations, combat support and combat service support, command and control, reserve capability and maritime and air activities.

Aid to the civil power operations
The defence forces, pursuant to their role of rendering aid to the civil power, assist the Guardia as required. Aid to the civil power operations include an extensive ranges of activities, * The provision of border patrols including assistance in dealing with border incidents * The provision of escorts for the protection of movements cash * The protection and storage of explosive materials used for industrial purposes * The provision of a permanent military guard at Portloise Prison and escorting and guarding prisoners. * Aerial support for operations in aid of the civil power, including aerial surveillance of the border area * Provision of naval vessels t patrol key areas during large scale security operations and assistance in combating drug trafficking.
International peace-keeping operations
The defence forces contribute to peace-keeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations, the organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union.
At present peace-keeping and related activity involves some 760 military personnel deployed in some 17 different countries and in the future will include the UN standby Arrangements System which the government have agreed to support. This initiative involves the commitment of up to 850 military personnel at any one time for rapid deployment to a UN mission area. Participation can be fulfilled by the re-designation to UNSAS of personnel currently serving with the UN. There would be no obligation to participate and, as in the case of all UN missions, the approval of Dail Eireann would be required before any contingent could be dispatched to UNSAS.
The largest single mission is UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) to which Ireland contributes some 620 personnel involving an infantry battalion and administrative and support personnel.
Fishery protection and surveillance operations
Ireland is responsible for protecting both national and European Union fishery resources in a sea area of 130000 square miles. The protection and conservation of these marine resources involves the deployment of seven fishery protection vessels and Air Corps maritime patrol aircraft. While tasked for fishery protection duties Naval Service vessels and Air Corps aircraft cam also undertake general maritime and coastal society surveillance work.
Search and rescue operations The Irish Marine Emergency Service, which operates under the aegis of the department of Marine and Natural Resources, has primary responsibility for marine emergency situations requiring a search and rescue operaton. The Air Corps and Naval Service undertake search and rescue operations on land and sea as required
The defence force environment:

The international security environment
Although the potential for large scale military confrontation in Europe has been reduced, risks and uncertainties remain which have the capacity to affect Irish interests. The defence forces ‘international security environment perspective is shaped by Ireland’s foreign policy which has developed under successive Irish governments.
Ireland’s membership of the United Nations has been an important cornerstone of the State’s foreign and security policy. Ireland has agreed to provide up to 850 military personnel to overseas peace support mission as part of its commitment to the United Nations Standby Arrangement SystemUN mandated peace support missions have been and are expected to continue to be a key task for the Defence Forces.

The national security environment
The Guardia have primary responsibility for the maintenance of law and order, including internal security, within the state. As part of the Government assigned roles the Defence Forces are called on to aid civil power (Garda) in deterring and combative subversive activity. The identification, assessment and provision of early warning in relation to individuals or groups considering armed aggression against the State will continue to be an essential part of the work of the Defence Forces
Ireland has extensive coastal waters, maritime resources and EU fishing stocks. These resources are primarily secured by the Naval Service. Responsibility for the security of Irish airspace lies with Air Corps.

SWOT Analysis Defence Forces

Strengths * The high level of professionalism, dedication and service to the State * The “ can do “ approach of military personnel * The resilience of individual and collective morale in the Forces * The high international reputation of the defence forces * The military ethos * The extent to which conventional military skills have been retained at individual level

Weaknesses * Personnel, operational units are seriously under-strength * Deployment and organisation, structure and deployment, with operational units dispersed over too many installations, require substantial reform * Equipment and infrastructure, inadequate expenditure on equipment and infrastructure * Training, insufficient dedicated collective conventional military training * Command and control structure, out-dated top-level managements arrangements * Funding, the need to improve the ratio of non-pay to pay expenditure * Hearing compensation, impact on pride and public image of the defence forces

Opportunities * Continued organisational reform process * Involvement in international and regional organisations * Air corps and naval service reviews * Continuation of the process of devolving substantial financial authority and decision making * Using the SMI process as a vehicle to improve the civil-military working relationships * Introducing the partnership concept as a means of enhancing the defence force reform process

Threats * Competition from other better equipped and trained armed forces in the provision of modern peace-support forces * Negative impact of the deafness compensation publicity * Danger of a selective approach to the implementation of defence forces reforms * Ongoing pressure to contain public service expenditure

Defence forces objectives

The department of defence strategy statement sets out a number of objectives and programmes involving the Defence Forces. These are brought together in this defence force strategy statement and elaborated upon in the light of the defence forces mission and preceding analysis

Result objectives

Defence capability: to ensure that the defence force are at the appropriate level of operational readiness to deter or counter armed aggression and to fulfil those other roles assigned by government

Ministerial support: to provide military support to the minister of defence in his command, executive and administrative duties in relation to the defence forces.
This objective follows directly from the duties and functions delegated by the minister to specified senior level military appointment holders in the defence forces: * Military input into the formulation of government policy on defence and national security * Collection, analysis and dissemination of intelligence on the security implications of changes in Ireland’s national and international environment * Development of operational capability requirements based on military options to meet approved defence outcomes * Preparing and updating operational deployment plans, concepts and doctrines, dealing with actual and potential military and non-military situations at home and abroad * Determining operational readiness and sustainability levels to be maintained * Conduct and control of military operations and related matters at the higher level

Operations: to direct and guide the operational activities of the defence forces by means of planning, guidance and control of operational matters. * Operational employment plans, concepts and doctrines across a range of military contingencies and in support of national non military contingencies. * Operational readiness * Operational input into combat development and long term manpower plans * Assist the chief of staff in higher level control of military operations and related matters
Intelligence: to provide accurate and timely assessments of any threats against the State and the defence forces from internal or external sources. * Timely warning of actual or potential threats against the state and the defence forces * Intelligence estimates on countries and peace missions of relevance to the defence forces * Analysis of developments in international organisations * Establishments and maintenance of liaison and co-operation in order to provide intelligence assessments for the defence and security interests of the state and for the discharge of responsibilities to the international community * Collection and preservation of material and data for archival purposes

Training: to train for the development of an all-arms combat capability for current and future conventional tasks while maintaining standards necessary for current activities. * Individual training programme to attain the core competencies and skills * Collective training and exercising programme to develop and evaluate operational and readiness capabilities of units and formations * Training and military doctrine input into combat development and long term manpower plans * Educational programmes to fulfil defence forces knowledge and skills requirements in coordination with personnel management policies

Personnel: to attain, retain and sustain a motivated, effective and disciplined body of people to meet the requirements of the defence forces * Planned human resources strategy * Achieving best practice in the management of defence forces personnel * Active encouragement of the full participation of women in the defence forces * Remuneration and benefits policy

Logistic and equipment: to acquire, maintain and manage assets and materiel of the defence forces at the appropriate level of operational readiness in a cost effective manner * Logistic input to the combat development plan and consequent procurement programmes * Logistic operations and procedures which conform the best practice * Asset management and maintenance policies which provide value for money

Organisation: to develop and implement forces structures and deployment arrangements which best fit the military and assigned tasks of the defence forces * Deployment of military units, that is operationally effective and cost efficient * Flexible and responsive structural and deployment revision arrangements capable of meeting changing operational capability requirements and tasking

Public relations: to establish and sustain mutual understanding between the defence forces and the public * Public relations strategy aimed at developing mutual understanding between the defence forces and the public at national, local and community levels * Public relations strategy evaluation and updating process with particular emphasis on the internal and external audiences and issues which must be addressed

Information management: to plan, specify and build a fully integrated strategic information system linking all defence locations to ensure the most effective and efficient delivery of administrative and management services * Completion of a fully integrated information system in line with the department of defence strategic information technology plan * Completion of the networking of all defence locations

Annually produced services
Aid to the civil power operations (defence forces) * The capability of army, air corps and naval service units to conduct aid to the civil power operations in support the guardia including border security operations, cordon and search operations, cash, explosives and prisoner escorts, presence at explosive blasting sites, the securing of vital installations and VIP’s, explosive ordnance demolition operations, specialist search and specialist assault, aerial reconnaissance and the provision of a maritime patrolling, surveillance and interdiction.

Peace support operations abroad (defence forces) * The capability to contribute peace support operations under direct United Nations mandate or under United Nations authorised mandate to regional organisations, viz, organisation for security in the European Union. It includes the capability to participate in military force deployment missions, monitor/observer missions and headquarters staff missions in a peace support environment.

Fishery protection and maritime drugs interdiction operations (naval service) * The capability of naval flotilla ships to conduct fishery protection operations as agreed with the department of marine and natural resources including the patrolling, monitoring and interception of fishery activities within the European economic zone. Drug and contraband interdiction operations include the capability to monitor and apprehend potential drug or contraband carrying vessels.

Fishery surveillance (air corps) * The capability of fixed and rotary-winged aircraft to conduct fishery surveillance.

Search and rescue operations (air corps) * The capability of rotary-winged aircraft to conduct offshore SAR operations as agreed with the Irish marine emergency service.

Ceremonial and protocol functions (defence forces) * The capability of defence forces units to provide an appropriate military presence at ceremonial and protocol occasions, including the provision of aides-de-camp, guards of honour, motor-cycle escorts of honour, gun salutes, firing parties, military bands and pipers
Provision of military advice (defence forces headquarters) * This output concerns military assessments of situations in areas of national and strategic interest to Ireland and military advice for government and relevant departments on security matters and on the employment of elements of the defence forces

Management and control of the defence forces (defence forces headquarters) * The capability to provide strategic management and control to the three infantry brigades, air corps, naval service, reserve, defence forces training centre and special establishments.
Defence forces, context and mandate
The preservation of Ireland’s security * The ability of a sovereign nation-state to preserve and enhance the security and well-being of its people defines the defence role, and in the case of Ireland, the Defence Forces

A Preventive insurance policy * In order to meet Ireland’s defence related security concerns, interests and obligations, the defence forces are required, subject to the government’s approval and allocation of resources, to provide an ability to undertake conventional military operations. This military capability is designed to serve 2 purposes: To act as a sufficient deterrent to those who may consider taking actions hostile to Ireland’s security interests.
To apply military force when required.
Operational effectiveness as the priority output * Military personnel are tasked with being in a constant state of readiness to deploy effective military force as and when required. In addition, the defence forces must prepare for and be capable of performing many other tasks effectively.

Military ethos * The defence forces subscribe to a distinct code of military discipline and ethics which is voluntarily entered into and involves the curtailment of personal liberty and rights. The military ethos values integrity, patriotism and courage in a service to the state which will make stressful and sometimes life-threatening demands on the individual.

Military leadership * Leadership is particularly important for the defence forces. The principal requirement of a military leader is the ability to motivate those whom he commands. Accordingly, the development of leadership skills is emphasised at all levels in the defence forces.

Irish army

Irish Army forces
Today approximately 8,500 men and women work and serve within the Army. The country is divided into three delimitated zones in order to assure efficient administrative and operational actions through the country to prevent faster responses reactions, and in each area there is an infantry Brigade. The three brigade group structure envisages distinct operational areas of responsibility for each of the brigades.
Practical operational considerations dictate the requirement to outline operational zones of responsibility. The brigade group structure is based on strengthened combat and combat support elements and streamlined combat service support elements.
The Defence Forces Training Center and Defence Forces Logistics Base settle at the Curragh provide the training and logistics functions for the Permanent and the Reserve Defence Forces.

The Army is divided into three infantry brigades organised as combined-arms formations, each with a brigade headquarters, combat units, combat support units and combat service support units. it exists brigade for each side of the country; one southern brigade, two eastern brigades and four western brigades
Each brigade is designated a territorial area of responsibility, specific garrison locations and a recruitment area.
The Army Brigade comprises of the following: * Infantry battalions provide the manoeuvre and close combat elements, * Artillery regiment provides fire support, * Cavalry squadron provides reconnaissance, * Engineer company provides mobility, counter ability and survivability, * Communications and information services company provides information, * Logistics battalion provides * transportation, * maintenance and supply, * military police, * medical services, * ordnance functions

Army brigade- southern brigade:
Southern Brigade is an all arms Brigade consisting of combat, combat support and combat service support elements. Such elements include units of Infantry, Artillery Cavalry, Engineers, Communications and Transport. These units are spread throughout the Brigades' designated area of territorial responsibility.
The Southern Brigade is responsible for military operations in the south of the country. Its area of responsibility includes the counties of: Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kilkenny, Kerry, Laois, Limerick, Tipperary, Wexford and Waterford. The Brigade Headquarters is located in Collins Barracks, Cork.
Within the Southern Brigades area of responsibility are situated various vital installations including; * Shannon airport * Cork airport * Cork Docks * Farranfore airport
The Brigade has at times assisted the civil powers, by providing security at these locations when requested.

Operations Aid to Civil Power
1 Southern Brigade is commited to preforming ongoing Aid to Civil Power duties that are performed everyday. These ongoing ATCP duties include: * Cash in transit escorts * Prisoner escorts * Explosive Ordnance Disposal * Patrols and security at vital installations * VIP Security * Assistance to the civil authorities in the instances of floods or other civil emergencies.
Overseas Operations
The Southern Brigade has a proud tradition of overseas service with personnel deployed in various missions throughout the world.

Training:
When not involved in operations personnel are in constant training to maintain current skills, become proficient with new equipment and in particular to be able to adapt to a constantly changing environment.
Brigade training takes place all year round and covers; Conventional Military Operations, Overseas Missions, and Aid To Civil Power.
There are several training areas within the Brigade area: * Kilworth Camp * Bere island * Fort Davis

Organisation

Army Brigades- Eastern Brigades:
The Eastern Brigade is responsible for military operations in the East of the country. Its area of responsibility includes the counties of: Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Meath, Wicklow. The Brigade Headquarters is located in Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin.
Within the Eastern Brigades area of responsibility are situated various vital installations including; * Government buildings * Uachtarán na hÉireann (Residence of the President) * Foreign Embassies * Dublin airport * Dublin Docks * National Mint
The Brigade has at times assisted the Civil powers, by providing security at these locations when requested.
There are several training areas within the Brigade area: * Gormanston Camp * Kilbride Camp * Glen of Imaal

Army brigades-western brigades:
The Western Brigade is responsible for military operations in the West of the country. Its area of responsibility includes the counties of: Cavan, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Longford, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath. 4 Brigade Headquarters is located Costume barracks, Athlone.
Within the Western Brigades area of responsibility are situated various vital installations including; * Knock airport
The Brigade has at times assisted the Civil powers, by providing security at these locations when requested.
There is one training area within the Brigade: * Carnagh Camp

Different schools of the Irish army

Defence Forces Training Center
The Defence Forces Training Centre provides professional military training and education to Defence Forces personnel and administrates and manages the Logistics Base and Defence Force Reserve units located within its area of territorial responsibility.
The DFTC also provides a certain ‘after sales service’, in the form of training validation. This is mainly done through the preparation, planning and conduct of evaluation exercises for brigade units.
All colleges and schools also have a role in providing advice in their relevant areas of expertise, recommending revisions to syllabi and conducting R&D work on an ongoing basis.
The Defence Forces Training Centre consists of a Headquarters, the Military College, Combat Support College, Combat Service Support College, Supply and Services Unit, Military Police Company, Logistics Base and Defence Forces Reserve units. The Headquarters has a small Personnel Staff, an Operations/Intelligence/Training Staff and a Logistics Staff.

The military College:
The Military College is responsible for the provision of training and doctrine to the Leadership, management and combat units of the Defence Forces. Training includes career courses, Infantry support weapons, senior management courses and overseas training.
There are four schools within the Military College: * Command and staff school * Infantry school * United nations Training School Ireland * Cadet school

Command and Staff school:
Located within The Military College, the Command & Staff School is the senior school of the Defence Forces. The school conducts career courses, staff courses, associated tactical, operational and strategic level training to support the education of senior officers. Its graduates are qualified to plan and conduct operations across the full military spectrum in order to fulfil national and international tasks at the tactical, operational and strategic levels of war.
Officers of Commandant (Major) and above rank are eligible to attend command and staff courses.

Infantry School:
The Infantry School delivers the highest possible standard of military education and training, in accordance with Defence Forces doctrine, ensuring that students on all career, instructor and other courses conducted by the school, are provided with the knowledge, skills and competencies to effectively hold appropriate appointments, as part of Defence Forces units at home or when deployed with multi-national forces on operations overseas.
The Infantry School conducts career courses for officers and NCOs in addition to specialist courses such as CBRN training and weapons courses.

Officer Training Wing
Junior officers of all corps of the Defence Forces, in preparation for command and staff appointments up to battalion level both within the Defence forces and overseas in a multi-national environment, develop their professional skills on career courses, staff courses and associated terrain and tactical activities conducted by the Officer Training Wing (OTW).
The core function of the Wing is to conduct the Junior Command and Staff Course (JCSC). This course is undertaken by Defence Forces and international students and is designed to develop command, analytical and communications skills and provide officers with command and staff training and education to hold the rank of Commandant (OF–3) in a variety of command and staff appointments.
NCO Training Wing
The NCO Training Wing (NCOTW) conducts career and instructor courses for NCOs of the Defence Forces to develop professional skills and train competent and efficient junior leaders. While other courses and activities are conducted by the Wing , the emphasis remains on NCO career courses which qualify Corporals for promotion on successful completion of the Standard NCO course, and Senior NCO appointments on successful completion of the Senior NCOs course.
Additionally, students that qualify, and successfully complete the Standard NCO course are eligible for the award of Certificate in Military Studies (level 6) from the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC).

Infantry Weapons Wing
The Infantry Weapons Wing (IWW) conducts a range of courses that qualify Officers and NCOs to instructor level on Support Company weapons (HMG, Javelin Anti-tank, 81 mm Mortar) and across a range of disciplines (Sniper, Recce Commanders, AFV recognition).
The IWW houses a number of facilities used by the Military College and other Defence Forces institutions. These facilities include: * GAMMA-OTTS Indirect Fire Control Trainer * AFV Recognition Room * Morfire Fitted Lecture Hall
Preparatory courses for overseas units and courses in new equipment are conducted as required.

Cadet School

The role of the Cadet School is to develop character, leadership skills and to encourage a sense of duty and responsibility trainee Officers (cadets). Cadets are trained in weapons handling (to instructor level), tactics (conventional, internal security and counter–insurgency), arms and foot drill, military engineering, human resource management, communications skills, military law, end-user computer training and academic studies which include leadership, psychology, Irish and military history, politics and economics.
A module of the Course is undertaken in the Defence Forces Physical Culture School where each Cadet is required to qualify as a Physical Training Leader.

United Nations Training School Ireland

UNTSI (The United Nations Training School Ireland) was established in 1993 as a school of the Military College with the principle aim of ensuring that the Defence Forces training for peacekeeping would be of the highest standards in all aspects of today's complex peace support operations. UNTSI is also a centre which draws on the exceptional range of experience gained by Irish peacekeeping soldiers on many missions world-wide.
The role of the school, therefore, is: * to study developments in peacekeeping in all its forms * to develop peacekeeping doctrine and to conduct training courses and seminars on peacekeeping * Courses available to Defence Forces Personnel * Mission specific training * Debriefing personnel from all Irish peacekeeping missions * Instructor Exchange Programmes * Mission specific training of Military Observers for all Irish supported peacekeeping missions world-wide. * An International Course for Military Observers and Staff Officers (UNMOSOC) of Captain or Major rank.
The Combat Support College (CSC)
The Combat Support College provides for the educational and training needs of the Artillery, Engineer, and CIS Corps, within the Defence Forces Training Centre.
The CSC consists of a headquarters and four schools: * Artillery School * Cavalry School * CIS School * Engineer School

Artillery School

The Artillery School conducts courses relating to the role and employment of all field artillery, air defence, and associated target acquisition systems.
It conducts tactical and live firing exercises associated with courses and supervises all Artillery Corps live firing exercises.
Examples of courses conducted in the Artillery School are: * Artillery Young Officers’ Course, * Air Defence Controllers and Operators Course, * Gun Detachment Commanders’ * Course, Regimental Survey, * Aimers, Gunners and Aircraft Recognition Courses

Cavalry School

The Cavalry School conducts courses for all ranks relating to the role and employment of Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) and Reconnaissance assets, including supervision of exercises and live firing.
Examples of courses conducted in the Cavalry School include: * Drivers/Leaders Course, Gunnery, * Crew Courses, * Technical Courses, * Young Officers and Standard Cavalry Courses for officers of the Corps.
The Cavalry School also exercises general supervision over live firing exercises conducted by the Cavalry Corps.

CIS School
The Communications and Information Services School conducts courses for all ranks relating to the role and employment of communications equipment, including communications security and maintenance.
The Communications and Information Services School conducts training in the following areas: * Apprenticeships * Regimental Signallers * Electronic Engineering Technicians * Radio Instructors * Telephone Maintenance * Data Communications * Microwave Systems * Network Administration * CIS officers Corps career courses

The Engineer School
The focus of the Engineer School is on combat engineering, mobility and counter mobility operations: bridging, demolitions, mine clearance and obstacle breaching. They also conduct Engineer Special Search Team (ESST) training. They provide mine awareness training for all corps and indeed for the Garda Síochána (our civilian police force) and certain NGOs. Some of the courses conducted in the Engineer School are open to foreign participants.
The School is also responsible for the conduct of Fire-fighting Courses, both for the benefit of the Defence Forces and to train personnel for intervention in industrial disputes, in order to maintain essential services.
The school of Military Engineering trains Defence Forces Personnel in the techiques of bridge building, construction, mine sweeping, explosives and combat engineering (Pioneers). Engineers are responsible for keeping the army on the move.
Defence Forces Logistics Base (DFLB)
The Defence Forces Logistics Base (DFLB) located in the Curragh Camp, Co Kildare, provides for the strategic storage, repair and distribution of material and equipment for the Defence Forces. In 1998 both the Logistics Base Dublin and Logistics Base Curragh were established following on from the recommendations of the Reorganisation and Implementation Plan (DFRIP).
With the closure of Clancy Barracks, Dublin, in 2001, the functional elements of Logistics Base Dublin were moved to the Curragh with a view to the creation of a Defence Forces Logistics Base incorporating both existing Logistics Bases.
By its very nature, the Defence Forces Logistics Base is a multi-disciplined unit comprising of personnel from each of the Combat Service Support Corps operating in many specialist roles in a logistical support role to the Defence Forces.
Corps of the Army
Each Army in the world is comprised of many branches of specialisation. In military terms these specialist branches are known as Corps.
Today, the Army has nine Corps, each designated as either combat, combat support or combat service support:
Combat Units
Combat units of the brigade are those units whose primary function is the destruction of the enemy by fighting. The combat units of the Army brigade are the infantry battalions.
Infantry Corps :
These "foot soldiers", are the backbone of all armies. The infantry corps are regarded as operational troops who must be prepared for tactical deployment in any location at short notice.
In wartime this means that they will be among the front line troops in the defence of the State.
In peacetime however they can be seen daily performing operational duties in Aid to the Civil Power such as providing escorts to cash, prisoner or explosive shipments, patrols of vital state installations and border patrols, including check points.

Infantry battalion:
There are three Infantry Battalions in the Infantry Brigade.
Each battalion consists of three rifle companies, one support company and a headquarters company.
Each rifle company contains three rifle platoons and one weapons platoon with anti armour, heavy machine gun and mortar elements.
The support company contains anti-armour, heavy machine gun, mortar, assault pioneer and reconnaisance elements.
The headquarters company contains administrative, logistics, communications, and transport elements.

Combat Support Units
The combat support units furnish tactical support to the combat units. The brigade combat support units are the field artillery regiment, the cavalry squadron, the engineer company and the communications & information services company.
Artillery Corps:
The Artillery Corps provides fire support of infantry or armoured elements. The Corps was founded in 1924 and today consists of two main branches: * Field Artillery * Air Defence.
Between them, the two branches of the Corps provide several vital services; * Fire support of Infantry or Armoured troops * Ground to low level air defence * Light field battery support to Irish overseas battalion * Aid to the civil power duties.
Cavalry Corps:
The Cavalry Corps has a significant part to play in the conventional operations of the Army. The Corps is equipped with armour to carry out its role of reconnaissance, making first contact with an enemy and providing security to the infantry in offensive and defensive operations.
The key word in the Cavalry Corps is "mobility", and it enjoys a reputation of flexibility and readiness to undertake any task.
In peacetime the Cavalry carries out various duties in aid to the Civil Power, such as: * Border operations supporting An Garda Síochána. * Escort duties - cash, explosives, and prisoner. * Patrolling vital installations. * Presidential Motor Cycle Escort.
The cavalry squadron consists of three reconnaissance troops, a support troop and an administrative troop. Cavalry units are deployed for reconnaissance, security, and economy of force operations.

Conclusion

This academic year abroad was an amazing experience. I was really involved to meet Irish people in order to understand the Irish way of life and to improve my English skills. I really appreciate studying at the Waterford institute. The lecturers are much closer and attentive about the student needs and the organisation is really effective. Most of people are welcoming. I met great Erasmus people coming from Spain, Italy and Czech Republic, but in an other hand there was a lot of French students so since the beginning of the year I tried to stay away from them because they spent all their time together and it was not my objective. I decided to take some lectures where i was the only Erasmus student in order to meet Irish people. Especially during the second semester I get good relationships with many Irish people, so I decided according to the chief of the business department to make an other year here to intend a bachelor with Honours. I realised that I have a great opportunity to stay and I don’t want to waste it. I just a little bit scared about the next year because the life is really expensive in Ireland and I won’t receive some grants from the Government but I will probably share a house with Irish people. I really excited to coming back in Ireland because I will be surrounded only by Irish friends and my English skills will rise a lot.

Bibliography

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