Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentation and for giving of their time on this important topic. I welcome greater co-operation throughout the European Union on issues such as defence and cybersecurity. It makes sense, particularly for a small country and member state such as Ireland, to pool resources and to work with like-minded member states to deal with these threats that have, as the President of the Commission said, advanced in such a way that one person with a laptop can now cause significant damage to a country, as we have seen in Ireland.

Many of the questions about the strategy and how this might work have been asked, so I will ask some more specific questions. What is the future of the European Defence Agency? What are its plans for the next five or ten years? What are its budgets for 2021 and 2022 and do our guests foresee an increased budget for the EDA in the next five or ten years? Is it recruiting additional staff and personnel with certain expertise to expand its operations to support member states?