Ireland is a neutral country and will not be wasting a billion euro on fighter jets. Joining NATO is a non runner. There is no threat to Ireland whatsoever and public opinion has always been in favour of remaining neutral rather than joining NATO. With the Greens now in power, it's more likely the Irish government would spend another billion on the overseas development aid budget than giving a billion euro to a foreign military supplier to buy fighter jets. As Elon Musk says, manned fighter jets will be redundant in the not too distant future. UAV's are the future.