Dr. Margaret Stanley:

On UK co-operation, as our near neighbours, much of a critical infrastructure connects under the sea between our country and the UK. Our security, therefore, is their security and vice versa when it comes to this particular critical undersea infrastructure, especially the gas pipelines that connect our two countries. I reference the joint statement the Taoiseach and the UK Prime Minister made earlier in the year on increased co-operation. It looked at a wide spread of areas, but maritime security was singled out, especially the security of critical undersea infrastructure, which is a new area on which we want our two countries to co-operate closely. In addition to the UK, we have had meetings with people in other countries too, including France, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway and others to understand better how they approach increasing their maritime security and what we can learn, how we can share information and how we can perhaps co-ordinate. Again, given the nature of the maritime domain, no one country can be secure in itself. There is a huge importance on working together and identifying opportunities for co-operation. Specifically on the common information sharing environment, if it is okay, I ask Mr. Neary to speak in a little more detail on this area because he is very aware of this particular project.