Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Under the Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, we are obliged to approve formally any European Defence Agency, EDA, projects and that is why we are debating this motion. I am not a member of the select committee, but I read the report of the debate on Committee Stage. Some of the issues just raised were not raised at that time, certainly not in those terms. My understanding is that we must be very careful in measuring our involvement in any EDA project, and that is why it requires the approval of the Dáil.

As the Minister has indicated, the projects we are involved in include cyber defence training, which is very important, because I think we are very vulnerable to cyberattack and it is something we must take seriously; satellite communications; counter-improvised explosive device, IED, training, which is an area we are expert in and in which we could give training; and military search capacity building to enable us to be involved in sea rescue etc. These are all things which merit deep consideration in respect of co-operation to develop our skills base.

Everybody I have heard in my time in this House defends Irish neutrality. It is a fundamental principle of our constitutional stance and our international role. Neutrality, however, does not mean being neutered. We do not take defence seriously. We talk about neutrality, but we have extraordinarily weak Defence Forces. Concerning the notion that we are going to be subsumed into a greater army, we do not have the capacity to be subsumed into very much right now. The real concerns I want to put to the Minister, which he will probably not have an opportunity to respond to now, so perhaps he will do so in writing, relate to the capacity of our Naval Service to do the various tasks it is assigned. Those tasks have now been extended because of the requirement to do additional fisheries patrols in the absence of Britain from the European Union.

I am deeply worried. I understood that in our own time in government, with virtually no money, we managed to provide four state-of-the-art, new vessels for the Naval Service, but several others now also need replacement. The flagship, the LÉ Eithne, has been scheduled to have been replaced since 2015. I understand that consultants are now to be appointed, or tendering for consultants to be appointed is underway, with a view to designing a ship. A huge amount of thought has already gone into that aspect, so why can we not go ahead and provide that vessel? I also understand that two former Royal New Zealand Navy vessels are being considered for fishery protection. Perhaps that is a good idea and maybe the details of that proposal will be given by the Minister. I state that because we certainly need to increase greatly the number of vessels we have.

There is no point in having new vessels, however, if we do not have the crews to man or person them. Last month, the Irish Examiner reported that the Naval Service had just 862 trained personnel. The agreed manpower level for the Naval Service is 1,094, which is already small, but some 24 more people are seeking to leave. I understand that at least two vessels are now docked for want of trained personnel.

All these wonderful projects are great, obviously if we have co-operation within the very strict confines of Irish neutrality. We debate that, and we should not exaggerate when we do not trespass beyond it. We should be co-operating with other neutral nations which are participating in these projects, like Sweden and Malta, with a view to developing and proudly seeking to promote our view of and approach to international affairs. I think that approach served us well in our campaign for the seat on the UN Security Council.

We are outgoing, we are supportive and we want to have the best training available for our personnel. My real fear, however, concerns the development of the skills needed now in a growingly technological world.

We need to have a new focus on defence because we are very vulnerable to incursions into our airspace and our seas, and we do not have the capacity to identify and resist those incursions without external help. I hope the Minister will begin to set out his plans to begin to rectify that in the immediate term. There is no point in having very elaborate agreements in terms of co-operation, upskilling and training if we do not have the personnel to man the vessels in the first instance and the adequate number of vessels to provide for the various tasks that we give our Naval Service.

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