Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am up next and I do not have a huge number of questions for the Minister of State. We read the brief. It makes a lot of sense to convert this organisation into an intergovernmental one. I think there will be full support in that regard. I have a very brief question if the Minister of State is comfortable answering it. He recently visited County Clare and the Irish Aviation Authority, which monitors everything that is happening in the air. Of course, we are discussing sea navigation here today, but we saw a huge amount of commercial air traffic and there is a huge number of ships in our seas at the moment. There was a purpose in monitoring our coastal waters and our airways from a navigational point of view, but now there is an added significance to that given the conflict in Ukraine.

Videos were shown last night by Sky News of a Russian aeroplane being intercepted by American aeroplanes and vice versathe previous week. While we are talking about marine navigation today, there are plans for a primary radar system and I wonder if there is going to be a beefing up of monitoring what happens in our coastal waters along the lines of what the Russians were attempting to do in regard to missile testing off the coast of Cork. I know this is more about the lighthouse end of things, but is the Department doing anything in that regard to keep a closer eye on what is happening in our waters and our airspace?