Mr. Rossa Mulcahy:

I welcome the comments of the Secretary General in regards to the timeframe for that. The benefits are huge. We engage with the defence attachés who are largely based in the UK. For embassies that are accredited here in Ireland, many of the attachés are based in London. They come over to Ireland and we meet them annually. We have a very good exchange of information and discussions on areas of common interest. In the current security environment, no country can provide for its own security entirely. Networks are hugely valuable to every state.

The committee may be aware we have recently enhanced our own intelligence capability. We now have an Irish intelligence military information service, which has been stood up in Defence Forces headquarters. That adds huge value to the security of the State. The service has a wide network of contacts across Europe and other partner nations. That enhances the force protection of our personnel when they are deployed on missions overseas and also the conduct of our operations on island and in our area of operations across the State in the air and the sea. The benefit is the more information we can share with partner nations, the more information we will receive in return and the greater we can increase the security not only of Defence Forces personnel deployed, but also of the citizens of Ireland.