Ms Caitr?ona Heinl:

Deputy Stanton asked about the instrumentalisation of food. There have been some developments around that in relation to the abuse of supply chains. Critical tech is another one that is crossing our radar where there are questions around how we reduce vulnerabilities and map out dependencies we might not have been aware of. Much of this activity has taken place at EU level but in order to have a full understanding of what is happening across Europe, states, and I expect that will include Ireland, will begin to map out their dependencies or vulnerabilities whether in critical tech or food supply chains.

On lawfare, there is something I did not mention which I probably should have. As well as using illegitimate means, some of these actors also use legal means. Lawfare is an interesting situation where in order to bring about political, military or economic objectives, activity can occur below the threshold of warfare but there is also the understanding of how international law functions to bring about those types of strategic objectives that we might not even be aware of. The Deputy may have heard of the term “unpeace”. Much of this activity, despite what is sadly happening in respect of the invasion of Ukraine, is happening in a period of unpeace. In that context, as well as food you could name a category where it is being instrumentalised. We focused a lot today on Europe but there is a lot of activity happening in other regions such as Africa. The issues surrounding food or supply chains are very prominent there but also tech and so on. It is about trying to figure out how activity in other regions can impact not only Ireland but other nation states at home.