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

Can the Chairman give me ten seconds to respond to Senator Ó Donnghaile? It was noted by the commission that when its representatives visited both Finner Camp and Dundalk, there were a particularly high number of people in the Defence Forces from north of the Border. It is a fair point that we should ensure that our recruitment campaigns are all-island. So far, that has not been the case but I believe there is a real appetite in Northern Ireland to join the Irish Defence Forces and we should take advantage of that. It is a fair point.

I am not avoiding that question on vulnerability. We could spend much time talking about Nord Stream 1 and 2 and sabotage and so on. All I can say is that we are having, and already had, meetings with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. We also had meetings with that Department, Gas Networks Ireland and EirGrid to look at infrastructure offshore. We are currently agreeing with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications how we might respond to that in terms of increasing the number of patrols in those areas, both from the Naval Service and the Air Corps. The owners of that infrastructure also have responsibility. For example, EirGrid has a private sector global company monitoring cables under the sea. It is important to also say that most of that infrastructure, particularly the pipelines, is actually encased in concrete and under the seabed. There are, therefore, already pretty secure pieces of infrastructure. As members would expect, however, we are reviewing that at the moment. I think we will see increased Naval Service and Air Corps presence in the parts of the sea where infrastructure is under the seabed. There is also an equipment issue that we obviously need to review and look at to see whether we need to factor it into the capital investment programme we have.