There is a fatalistic atmosphere in Brussels surrounding discussions on financing the next CAP regime due to start in 2027, just after the Irish presidency of the Council of Ministers ends in December 2026.

So the heavy lifting will have to be done with the Irish acting as the chair of what are bound to be difficult and prolonged discussions.

But in fact, we have a useful parallel created by Germany to solve their own budgetary dilemma. Germany has operated a rigid budgetary strategy since World War II.

The shadow of runaway inflation from the 1920s is etched in the national consciousness so inflation, especially if it is caused by government spending and borrowing, has led to constitutional constraints on government spending.

These have now been removed – unlike in Ireland, there is no need for a referendum in Germany to amend the constitution provided a sufficiently large proportion of the parliament approves.

But in addition to the constitutional impediment being removed, the Germans have decided to place defence spending in a different category to general government expenditure and not have it subject to the same constraints.

Given the invasion of Ukraine and the new reappraisal in Washington of the US commitment to NATO and European defence, Europe has no option but to put in place measures to protect itself.

Ireland will not be exempt from this extra spending and extra money for the Department of Defence, the army, navy and air force has already been announced.

Spending

But there is also going to be a major Brussels dimension to extra defence spending.

It seems obvious that Europe should follow the German example and exempt new EU spending on defence from the normal EU budgetary limits and place it under a separate new category.

The extra spending required under the new CAP regime is going to be significant and already serious proposals have been made to have extra funding for environmental and energy projects.

Europe is already fretting about declining EU food production and, for the first time in many years, is talking about the need for food security.

For the last 15 years or so, we have masked this by importing increasingly competitively-priced animal feed, produced with the aid of agri chemicals banned in Europe, as well as being produced with GM technology, also banned in Europe.

It’s time for a rethink.