James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his opening remarks and engagement. I broadly support the collaboration as proposed, but I will drill into the details of a couple of gaps we may have in an attempt to understand whether our participation will bridge them.

Deputy Gannon raised an interesting point on undersea cables and surveillance. There was a significant incident about 12 months ago in which aircraft circled what is called spaghetti junction off the south-west coast. It was suggested this was an intercept operation, certainly a mapping of some sort, to try to trace those cables, albeit from the air. It was very apparent the target was undersea cables. Part of our offering for locating foreign direct investment and the headquarters of multinationals' EU operations in Ireland, primarily in Dublin, has been the security and integrity of the data sets they keep and the data transfers to the US. There are data protection and other issues around that which I will not get into today. Can we stand over physical security not being compromised? Does this project enhance that? I hope and expect that it would, but the Minister might comment on that. Are any other measures being taken to secure those assets and transfers and to have maritime surveillance on the undersea cables that would be of significant interest?

The next point is on protection of assets of a different sort, such as natural resources. There is some degree of fossil fuel exploration off the west coast at the moment. We are, thankfully, moving on from that to a more wind based and renewable energy based space. I anticipate, and hope, that in the next number of years we will see development of significant offshore wind energy. To what extent, if any, will the likes of this project help to secure and monitor those assets from harm, whether hostile, just weather events or other factors coming across the horizon? Is it envisaged that our energy security will be enhanced as part of this, through those kind of offshore energy assets?

My third point is slightly different and goes back to Brexit issues. We have had some at-sea skirmishes, as it were. We had the Rockall incident with Scottish or Irish ships, perhaps a bit of both, being turned back. The voisinage dispute is now resolved, but the issues were there at the same time. Where our territorial seas end and the UK seas begin is now a European border as well. To what extent will that feature in this programme? Will it assist with these types of issues and engagements when they arise?