Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will make my last point, and everyone here might not agree with me on this, but the farm boy inside me is speaking. PESCO to the military is really what Europol is to An Garda Síochána. An Garda Síochána interacts with Europol. It gets excellent information and it gets excellent training. It ploughs that back and makes Ireland a safer place.

I see the four projects here purely through an Irish prism. We need to enhance our cybersecurity. This is definitely the case. We do not know when the next attack is coming and how severe it is going to be. We need to improve our medical training in the Defence Forces because we do not know when the next casualty will be. We want to prevent our next casualty from becoming our next fatality. Disaster relief was mentioned, as was flooding, which is due to hit in six months’ time and we need to be ready for it.

As for the issue of mine clearance, we need to have expertise to protect our own territorial waters. That is the way that I would see it, for what it is worth.