Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. In recent decades we have been very much at peace with our geopolitical system and we have not yet felt any threat whatsoever. We are on notice now that everything is different and will be different for the decades to come. We must respond differently and this commission's report is a timely intervention in that.

Deputy O'Callaghan said this is ultimately up to the Minister, but there is a broad swathe of political opinion and political support developing for the sorts of changes that are needed, while recognising the resource implications involved. What I am hearing from my constituency and the people I represent is a very strong desire that Ireland be capable of protecting itself, its people, its cybersecurity and its territory. We will consider whatever happens after that, but as a baseline we need to be sure we are able to protect ourselves. We are on notice now, in a way we never were before, that our previous assumptions about how we might be protected in the event of some aggression are finished.

See this speech in context