Wicklow is the centre of EU diplomacy for a few days at least at the beautiful Druids Glen

The Government has pledged a further €10 million to support training centres in Ukraine, as EU Defence Ministers meet this morning in the garden county of Wicklow.

The informal meeting — part of Ireland's ongoing Presidency of the Council of the European Union — will focus primarily on Ukraine, along with maritime defence and the increasingly prominent question of security in space.

Druid's Glen on Lockdown

Traffic restrictions are in place across a wide swathe of north Wicklow this morning as Defence Ministers from all 27 EU member states converge on the five-star Druids Glen Hotel and Golf Resort, tucked into the hills near Newtownmountkennedy.

It's the first time the Irish Presidency has brought a major set-piece gathering outside of Dublin or Cork, and the county is feeling the effects.

Roads in the immediate vicinity of the resort — including Woodstock Road, Creowen Road, Leabeg Lane, Kilmullin Lane, Kilquade Hill Road and the R772 at Killadrennan — are subject to closures and rolling restrictions for the duration of the summit.

An Garda Síochána says it is working directly with local residents and businesses to keep disruption to a minimum, though motorists have been warned to expect intermittent garda motorcycle escorts moving through the area as convoys of ministerial cars arrive.

The security operation doesn't stop at the roadside. The Irish Aviation Authority has imposed airspace restrictions over the wider Dublin and north Wicklow area for the length of the gathering, including a ban on drone flights, at the request of the Department of Justice. Out at sea, a temporary maritime exclusion zone and an accompanying "outer control area" have been declared off the Wicklow coast, with mariners formally advised of the navigational restrictions.

Reports this week suggested a Royal Navy vessel is providing air-defence cover from international waters around 22km offshore — a discreet but telling sign of just how seriously the security detail is being taken for Ireland's first EU Presidency in over a decade.

Ukraine Top of the Agenda

The early morning session is chaired by the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, with Ireland's Minister for Defence, Helen McEntee, hosting in her capacity as Presidency chair.

Ukraine's acting Defence Minister and NATO's Deputy Secretary General are both due to take part in the opening working session, alongside the chair of the European Parliament's Security and Defence Committee.

Discussions will centre on continued EU military and industrial support for Kyiv as it faces sustained Russian attacks. It's in this context that the Government has confirmed the additional €10 million contribution towards training centres in Ukraine, drawn from the broader €125 million support package for 2026 that was announced by the Taoiseach in Kyiv earlier this year.

That package already includes €100 million for non-lethal military equipment and €25 million earmarked for repairing Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of winter.

Maritime Security and Ireland's Lebanon Push

A second working session at Druids Glen this afternoon will turn to the role of space in modern defence planning, before ministers move on to maritime security — an issue Ireland has made a priority of its Presidency, given its own long coastline and the vulnerability of subsea infrastructure such as data cables and pipelines in the waters around Wicklow and beyond.

Also on the table is an Irish-backed proposal for the EU to stand up a military assistance mission to Lebanon once the mandate for the current UN peacekeeping force expires. Irish troops have a long and proud association with peacekeeping in Lebanon stretching back decades, and Dublin is understood to be pushing hard for Irish personnel to have a central role in whatever mission eventually replaces UNIFIL.

What's Next for Wicklow

Today's Defence Ministers' meeting is only the first half of a two-day diplomatic occupation of Druids Glen. EU Foreign Affairs Ministers — including, for the first time, the UK's Foreign Secretary — are due to arrive in the county tomorrow for a separate informal "Gymnich" meeting, meaning the road closures, garda presence and airspace restrictions around the resort are set to remain in place into a second day.

For now, though, all eyes in the garden county are on Druids Glen, as Ireland's EU Presidency brings the business of European defence policy to a golf resort more used to hosting weddings and society outings than the ministers of 27 nations.