Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. I want to put on the record that the Irish authorities have been very successful in recent months in stopping drugs being smuggled into the country. I want to recognise the contribution of An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces and the Revenue Commissioners, which work in consort with counterparts in other parts of Europe and around the world. By acting on intelligence, they have stopped a lot of illegal drugs coming into the country in recent months. They deserve our compliments for that.

It seems that when drug smuggling is not stopped, it is seen as Ireland being a soft touch or being a weak underbelly. When drugs are interdicted, people seem to make the same case. I think there is very good evidence that An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces and the Revenue Commissioners are doing a very good job in stopping illegal drugs coming into the country. We must always recognise that it will never be possible to stop it all. Only a proportion of it ever can be stopped. The US, with its enormous resources, power and equipment, has not been able to stop large amounts of drugs coming into its territory so there are clear limitations there.

Deputy Tóibín asked for figures on staff and budgets. I do not have those figures to hand, but I will provide them.

Deputy Ó Cathasaigh asked about cyberthreats and cybersecurity. The NCSC is situated in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. It leads a strategic national incident response process that involves co-ordinating across government and internationally. It works closely with An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces, both through personnel secondments and continuous joint working and information sharing. It also maintains close contacts with a range of private sector enterprises in the State and third level institutions here. The Government is committed to delivering world-class connectivity and communications. This includes continuing to invest in cybersecurity. This commitment is reflected in the budget allocation of €10.7 million to the NCSC in 2024. Cyberthreats are a concern, both for Ireland and for international partners. Cyberattacks are now a constant and persistent feature of the security landscape. The NCSC works closely with An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces and across Departments to help to protect the security of Government networks and the State's critical infrastructure.

I agree with Deputy Ó Cathasaigh on the risk of electoral interference. While we have no solid evidence of outside bodies engaging in electoral interference in Ireland, it has happened in other jurisdictions and it is something we are concerned about. It is not necessarily that malign actors would want to change the result of an election or affect the result of a vote, but from experience in other countries we believe that creating destruction in any democracy is to their advantage. We have to watch out for this. The Electoral Commission is being given the powers to deal with it to the extent that we can. We need to make sure it is properly resourced as well.

Deputy Conway-Walsh mentioned the very real problem of cyberattacks on individual businesses, voluntary groups and community organisations. The NCSC is working closely with the Garda and the Defence Forces. It is currently engaged in a detailed risk assessment of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities for the State. It also provides public information on cybersecurity risks and best practice for bodies to follow. Cyberattacks are a constant and persistent security threat. We are working closely with the gardaí and the Defence Forces on this issue. We co-operate very closely with the EU and other international counterparts in combating this threat.

Regarding my attendance and that of the Tánaiste in Munich, we made a considered decision to attend. First of all, we thought it was important that Ireland be present. People talk about Ireland at these meetings. It is a good thing to have people from Ireland there to be able to respond to some of information requests and some of the odder ideas that float around about this country. I was able to inform one gentlemen who was very concerned about the massive Russian Embassy in Ireland that in fact it has only 15 people in it, including diplomats and staff. As a lot of misinformation about Ireland is being spread at events like this, it is good to have Irish people there to be able to give people the facts, if they are interested in the facts. It also allows us to set out what we are doing in terms of our own security, for example by increasing our defence budget, engaging with PESCO and updating our relationship with the Partnership for Peace. The nature of security threats has changed since the time of Charles Haughey, Seán Lemass, Éamon de Valera and others. At the time, the major international security threat was in the form of a physical invasion, something that our geography protected us from. The threats today are very different. They are international terrorism, cyberterrorism, disruption and interference, and attacks on cables and pipelines in our seas. It is a very different security landscape than was the case during the time in office of the former taoisigh the Deputy mentioned. We have to be part of the security discussion in this regard because it is a different threat. The world moves on. We have to move on as threats emerge and change.

My attendance in Munich also gave me an opportunity to make the case to a lot of people who would not normally hear it that security has to be about more than defence spending. It is not just about how many aircraft carriers a country has or how many planes or how much ammunition it has. At the conference, I made the very strong case that while countries are understandably increasing their defence budgets and have a target of reaching 2% of GDP, an alternative target that could be considered would be matching defence budgets with international development and climate finance budgets. This is precisely because dealing with underlying security threats such as climate change, conflict, lack of economic opportunity and supporting institutions are the things that drive conflict. These investments and this spending is as much about security as military spending is. A lot of people would not hear that argument. It was good to be able to make the case to people, many of whom appeared not to have heard it before and were almost flummoxed in trying to respond because they knew what they were hearing is inherently true.

We have no plans for a referendum on neutrality. I think it would be extremely difficult to define. It is a policy that has to be open to evolution. If we were attacked and we needed to call for support from others, quite frankly I do not think we would have time to organise a referendum.

Deputy Murphy mentioned some issues about party colleagues. I do not know anything about them, Deputy, and I prefer not to comment. He seemed to imply that some of them are under Garda investigation for possible criminality, but I trust the Garda to carry out any such investigation without fear or favour.

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