Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A number of members raised the cyber issue. The primary role of the Defence Forces with regard to cybersecurity relates to the Defence Forces and the security of its networks and systems. The Defence Forces and the Department of Defence work with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications on an ongoing basis on the delivery of measures to improve the cybersecurity of the State. The Defence Forces provide support to the National Cyber Security Centre and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in line with the programme for Government commitment to implement the national cybersecurity strategy. I assure members that my Department and the Defence Forces implement a programme of continuous review in respect of ICT security to keep up to date with current threat levels. We also have a member of the Defence Forces in the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre in Tallinn in Estonia, which is probably the leading organisation in the EU on it.

The commission report references cybersecurity a great deal. The report contains a large number of recommendations relating to cybersecurity, and the Government will now consider the future development of the Defence Forces in light of that report. Members of the Defence Forces and officials from the Department of Defence are actively involved in the implementation of the national cybersecurity strategy. This includes work to develop and update detailed risk assessment of the current vulnerability of all critical national infrastructure. The response to cyber threats is a whole-of-government challenge, with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications taking the lead role. From an operational perspective, it would be inappropriate to comment on the cyber capability of the Defence Forces other than to say there is ongoing development of cyber capabilities in the Defence Forces.

Members are right to raise the issue because we know there is a significant cyber risk to Ireland. We had a very significant cyberattack on our health systems and the HSE in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic that put many patients at risk and cost the Government a considerable amount of money to fix. Neutrality does not mean we are safe. There are both state and non-state actors that want to interfere with our systems.

In terms of built infrastructure, it is one of the big increases in expenditure in these Estimates. There is a significant increase in the built infrastructure. I will give the committee a sense of the significant projects that were completed during 2021, and we will build beyond that. There was construction of two new gymnasia at Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick and Stephens Barracks in Kilkenny at a combined cost of €6.2 million. Provision of a new electric target range at The Curragh was €2.1 million. There was a no danger area, NDA, range at Gormanston, a personnel support service resource centre in Collins Barracks in Cork, which I opened, and replacement of standby generators at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel. There is a series of built infrastructure upgrades. Deputy Berry is right. We operate out of barracks that were put in place in a different era. Many of the buildings are historical and substantial, but they have to be upgraded and modernised from an energy point of view and from a quality of life and quality of work perspective.

There is far too much dereliction in The Curragh. People talk about that, but we have to prioritise the capital spend we have available. Everyone who is calling for more expenditure might tell me what projects they want me to drop and not proceed with. We cannot deal with the dereliction overnight. We can do it in a phased way as we increase our budgets, which we are doing with our capital budget. We are spending the highest capital budget this year since before the crash in 2008. I hope to be able to continue to increase that expenditure. There is significant work to be done in The Curragh, Haulbowline and in other barracks. Much of that is on a multi-annual investment programme, which I am happy to share with colleagues.

Regarding the radar issue, the White Paper recommends we look at that, resources permitting. It has been a question of prioritisation. It is easy to do everything if one has a limitless budget, which we do not have. We have an increasing budget every year and I hope that will continue. We will make recommendations regarding radar facilities in the context of experience, the commission report and the White Paper, but it is resource contingent. That is why we need to spend more money on defence. When Members stand up in the Dáil or Seanad and say we should not be investing in weaponry and defence systems because somehow that is a militarisation of Ireland, it is not. It is about ensuring our Defence Forces are operating in the right training environments and have the right equipment and training systems to be able to perform their role on land, at sea and in the air. In my view, that requires significantly more investment on both the capital and current sides. It is up to me to try to get that response from the Government, it is hoped before the summer break, in terms of the response to the commission report. We have a very strong evidence base now to back that up.

Also, the Deputy spoke about lessons learned in the context of a potential Russian naval exercise. It was not in Irish waters, actually, but in international waters that Ireland has responsibility for monitoring and observing. We need to be honest with ourselves. We could quadruple our defence budget and not have the defence capacity to repel a Russian naval fleet wanting to come into our waters. Let us get into the real world here. At present, what we are being asked to do by a commission report is to improve capacity in multiple areas. It recommends we should consider moving beyond that but accepts this will take a lot more time in the context of issues such as fighter jets and so forth, which some people seem to think is pie in the sky. The truth is that Ireland's capacity in conventional defence is quite limited. We need to have a much better understanding in terms of information and observation in both the air and sea and we need to invest accordingly. I hope we will.

What the commission is asking us to do when comparing Ireland with other peer group countries of similar size, wealth and defence perspectives is to move from spending a third of what they spend on average per year to spending a half of what they spend relative to GDP. We have to put that into context, particularly in the context of what we are seeing now in Ukraine. Very fundamental questions must be asked with regard to security, stability, our place in the European Union and what contribution we can make towards protecting our way of life, which we have been a part of building in the European Union, given the threats we are seeing to the east at present. That will be a discussion that will also be part of the consideration of the commission's report.