Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 8 and 36 together.

The primary focus regarding the procurement of defensive equipment by the Department of Defence is to maintain the capability of the Irish Defence Forces to fulfil the roles assigned to them by Government. The latter include undertaking overseas peace support operations and, in that context, the aim is to afford the greatest possible force protection to Irish troops while on missions.

The principle of competitive tendering for Government contracts is used by the Department of Defence for the acquisition of defensive equipment for the Defence Forces. Central to those procedures is the requirement to allow fair competition between suppliers through the submission of tenders following advertising of the tender competition on the e-tenders website and on the Official Journal of the European Union, where appropriate, in line with the EU procurement directives, including the directive on the procurement of defence and security equipment.

Such tender competitions are open to any company or country in accordance with the terms of all UN, OSCE and EU arms embargoes or restrictions. In this regard there are no such restrictions or embargoes in place on Israeli companies. Trade policy and market access are largely EU competencies and any restriction or ban on imports from any particular country would have to be concerted at EU level. The matter of barring Israeli companies from entering tender competitions for the provision of military goods would be akin to Ireland unilaterally placing an embargo on such goods from Israel and this raises, inter alia, serious implications for Irish foreign policy which are outside my remit.

I am advised that my Department has not purchased any weapons from Israel. However, other defensive equipment has been acquired from Israeli companies by way of competitive tendering, primarily unmanned aerial vehicles operated by the Defence Forces and ground surveillance radar equipment. Unmanned aerial vehicles currently operated by the Defence Forces are commonly referred to as UAVs.

Following a competitive tender process, four UAV systems were procured between 2007 and 2009 from Aeronautics Defence Systems Limited based in Israel, at a combined cost of €2.375 million exclusive of VAT. An upgrade of the Defence Forces UAV systems was carried out by the original equipment manufacturer in 2016 at a cost of €1.9 million exclusive of VAT. This involved the upgrade of four UAV systems with airframes in each system.

These UAVs are, in effect, an information gathering asset which have no offensive capability. They do not carry weapons. The UAV systems were acquired to enhance the capability of the Defence Forces to carry out surveillance, intelligence gathering and target acquisition for peace support operations and provide a low cost, low risk means to increase capabilities and enhance force protection by performing missions which do not demand the use of manned aircraft.

UAVs have a wide range of civilian and military applications, particularly in the area of surveillance over land and sea. They have the ability to perform tasks that manned systems cannot perform, either for safety or economic reasons. UAVs can effectively complement existing manned aircraft or satellite infrastructure used in environmental protection, maritime surveillance, natural disasters, crisis management, border control etc.

See this speech in context