Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have been invited to a dinner tomorrow evening at said gathering. There is nothing wrong with military chiefs from European countries or indeed other countries coming to such a meeting. They do this annually. It just so happens it is happening in Ireland this year - unless I am mistaken, for the first time in 20-odd years. It rotates among states and people get together to discuss the latest developments technologically and so on. That is normal. We are part of the Common Security and Defence Policy, CSDP. If you look at our United Nations missions with our Polish and Hungarian counterparts - Pol Batt - you see that they have to have interoperability. The idea that you would not meet anybody is farcical in terms of interoperability on peacekeeping missions. I presume the Deputy wants Ireland to continue peacekeeping or peace enforcement missions. There are and will be threats to undersea cables, potentially. There are cybersecurity threats, which we had during Covid with the attack on health data. Cybersecurity cannot be dealt with in isolation. We need to collaborate and co-operate with others and learn from others who may have greater expertise in some areas; we may have expertise in others. That is how we all learn in life in different disciplines.

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