Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I associate myself and my party with the remarks of the Taoiseach with regard to the ongoing search for the two missing crewmen of Rescue 116. There has been extraordinary public support and anguish empathising with the bereaved. These are people who have selflessly given their lives in this instance to support communities. I am reminded of that every time I cross Wexford Bridge to go home and see the flag at the RNLI station permanently at half-mast until those bodies are recovered.

With regard to emergency planning, in the past we talked about what might constitute an emergency, such as a nuclear explosion at a British nuclear plant and how that would impact on us. I do not want to get the Taoiseach into trouble, as I know a former Minister of State got into a lot of bother answering a question like this about iodine pills many years ago. I believe we need to think beyond just those sorts of incidents. Please God there will not be an explosion or mishap in a nuclear institution in Britain, but we have to plan for that.

A much more likely attack is a possible terrorist attack. We would be foolish to think that we are immune from that in this jurisdiction. I know that An Garda Síochána monitors some people in this country and so on. We need to up our game in this area. I believe it is a good thing that part of the review of An Garda Síochána will look at whether we need a bespoke security agency bringing together the best of military intelligence with Garda intelligence.

The cybersecurity area is where we are probably most prone to attack. It could cripple us. Over the years, all of our Departments have been subject to cyber attacks, some of which did not go into the public domain. It could have been absolutely crippling if, for example, the Department of Social Protection was shut down by a cyber attack. It would be hugely disabling for us. With regard to preparing for eventualities now in a completely changed environment in which even a football team on the way to a football match is not immune to attack, does the Taoiseach think we need to up our own game? I ask for his own thoughts on the need now perhaps to have a bespoke security agency separate from normal policing, which would in a way free An Garda Síochána to be the community police force it was initially envisaged to be, and on the need to up our game to prepare ourselves for the real challenges that exist.

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