Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has asked a wide range of questions. The Deputy referred to aid to civil power and the Defence Forces organisation not being able to meet all of its requests. I have no proof that we are unable to meet the requests that have been made under aid to the civil power. I presume the Deputy was specifically referring to the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority. While the Naval Service faces challenges in crew availability, patrol days output in the year 2017 was 25% up on the output of 2014. Given the Naval Service output for patrol days to the end of August 2018, the total Naval Service output for all of 2018 should be close to the 2017 numbers. I will go through the details for the Deputy. The number of patrol days carried out in 2013 was 1,382, in 2014 it was 1,127, in 2015 it was 1,204, in 2016 it was 1,376, in 2017 it was 1,408 and to the end of August 2018 it was heading for 1,000. Any requests from whatever agency, be they from An Garda Síochána, Customs and Excise or the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, we have been able to provide the service they have requested.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh spoke about the day-to-day demands on the Defence Forces. Of course there are huge demands on them. This winter, as with last winter, we will probably see snow or storms, which will place demands on the Defence Forces, and this is to be expected. Under aid to the civil power, we have been able to fill all of the requests.

The Deputy referred to PESCO and the number of personnel who are involved. Ireland is participating in two PESCO projects. One is the German-led European Union training mission competence centre project and the other is the Greek-led upgrade of the maritime surveillance. We will also be observers on a further eight projects. The projects to which the Deputy referred are at a very early stage of planning and no specific resources have been dedicated to them. As soon as the other projects are signed off, I would have no issue in forwarding the details on to the Deputy.

The proposed co-ordinated annual review on defence, CARD, will be a reporting mechanism. On military mobility, Ireland is a total observer on military mobility and it is entirely voluntary. As an observer in a monitoring role, Ireland would not be joining up. In November 2016, the Council concluded on implementing the European Union Global Strategy, EUGS, in the area of security and defence, and member states invited the High Representative and head of the European Defence Agency, EDA, to present on the scope, modalities and content of CARD.The objective of CARD is to develop voluntarily a more structured way to deliver identified capabilities based on greater transparency, political visibility and commitment from member states. CARD will provide a full picture of the European capability landscape and it will monitor defence plans as well as the implementation of capability development plan priorities, assess the state of defence co-operation in Europe, and identify co-operative opportunities, which in turn could be taken up within PESCO and possibly be funded under the European Defence Fund. CARD is effectively an analysis of the position of the aggregate European capability landscape. Ireland has participated fully in the process, and our trial run bilateral with the EDA took place on 14 December 2017. CARD aggregated analysis was presented at the capability director's steering board on 28 June. CARD aggregated analysis presents data aggregated at EU level and identifies initial trends regarding EU capability development as well as information on operational activities collected.

The Deputy spoke about Ireland being a member of the Partnership for Peace programme, PfP, within NATO. Many countries that are part of PfP have a similar policy of neutrality as Ireland's, and on all occasions we respect the policy on neutrality.