Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise some concerns the Green Party has with regard to both measures. While we very much support our Defence Forces in the work they are doing in the Mediterranean and in countering cyber-terrorism, we have real concerns about the nature of the strengthening of these common European defence operations.

With regard to the role of maritime surveillance, we have a general concern that the approach the EU has taken in recent years has not shown the proper regard for international refugee law. While we have ended up sending in our own naval vessels in order to save lives, the manner in which the EU has approached this through the Mare Nostrum programme that was first applied by the Italians, and wider involvement of the EU in the whole area, has not brought about a process of managing the refugee issue in a way which does credit either to the EU or anyone involved.

We have a concern that the deployment of this technology or the improvement in the surveillance mechanisms for vessels at sea will not necessarily lead to an improvement in the areas we would like to see improved, for example, surveillance against illegal fishing in Irish waters or other movements within Irish waters. In addition, we would love to see some sort of mechanism to track UK nuclear submarines coming out of the rivers in Scotland and their passage through Irish waters. As Brexit looms, it is that type of surveillance measure we would like to see greater certainty about. Our fear is that this will be used in the Mediterranean area, including the Aegean, to continue a policy that has not worked.

The dramatic increase in the budget for Frontex and the nature of the European military response to trying to protect our border is one we have real concerns about.

We are concerned about this budget allocation although it is very small. If it is a sign of approval of the way Europe has managed the refugee and migration crisis, particularly on our southern borders, we cannot agree with it.

While I very much welcome the possibility for us to increase our capability by training and upgrading of staff in the use of cyber ranges to improve our ability to defend ourselves from cyber attacks, I am concerned that the scale of our capability is not being sufficiently ramped up. Following the potential Brexit of our nearest neighbour, the UK, which already engages in widespread surveillance of everything that happens on the Internet in Ireland, it behoves us as it leaves the Union to look to increase our capabilities in this area and to be able to observe all ranges of cyber surveillance, including interstate cyber surveillance. That does not seem to be one of the issues we are highlighting or seeking to address here. As we head into a more dangerous world with the American and British Governments seeming to head into a more isolationist and less co-operative mode, we need to be careful to seek to maintain our security. I do not believe we will do that by an investment in a European security infrastructure which is designed according to a different mode of thinking from the Irish one. We have a better approach, based on neutrality, respect for the United Nations, supporting international refugee law and peacekeeping processes.

This mechanism might lead us to trying to cut off the problem at the ports of exit in Libya where we have caused a problem partly by European military intervention in the area, leaving it without any government. We might now look to do side deals where we would finance local groups or warlords or try to provide a refugee and border management system based not on the rule of international law but on the rules of the jungle which seem to have applied in recent years.

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