Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Assessing the security environment is one thing but the issue is whether we are ready to deal with an incident. In that event, if there is an Islamic terrorist attack in the country - I hope we never see that day - the State's two specialist units, namely, An Garda Síochána's emergency response unit, ERU, and the Defence Forces Army Ranger Wing are both located on the east coast. Should an attack take place requiring specialist intervention in the south west or the north west, the transportation of the specialist forces would be a major challenge due to the geography of the country. The Air Corps does not have a troop-carrying vehicle to transfer personnel from one location to another. As a consequence, it would take us a number of hours to get the specialists to a particular location. If, for example, there was an incident in the Ring of Kerry or somewhere in Mayo, how would we transport the troops that we need or personnel from the ERU to that location? Could we reasonably respond in the same timeframe, for example, that the emergency units in the UK responded to the attacks that took place there recently? I believe the honest answer would be "No".

We know that the ERU and the Army Ranger Wing have undertaken joint scenario planning, strictly on a table-top basis. They have not put the planning into practice and practice is clearly the key. Both entities have showcased their operational capabilities to each other but only in a demonstrated form. No deployed live exercises have ever taken place involving the ERU and the Army Ranger Wing. Is that acceptable given the international climate and the attacks that have taken place in neighbouring countries close to us? Can we really leave ourselves in such a low state of preparedness?

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