Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Minister of State will have an opportunity to come back in at the end. We have to recognise that this would be detrimental to the livelihoods of Irish farmers. In that context, we must be very strong and definite in respect of what we are doing around all of that.

Going back to issues of international security and cybersecurity, from time to time a red flag jumps up when there has been an attack somewhere but we need to recognise that it is an ongoing problem. Every day, the capacity of those actors is growing to attack and undermine our facilities, whether it be our water, telecommunications or power infrastructure, or the infrastructure of any Government agency across the State. We need a combative sense of how we are going to deal with it. That brings me to the issue of international and security co-operation. As others have mentioned, Ireland has a long tradition of being neutral. This tradition is recognised globally as giving us strength and uniqueness and allows us to be seen as an honest broker in many situation. However, we also need to have our own security positioned in place with a military force that can respond and protect our airspace and undersea cables. Our navy is at a really low ebb at the moment. There is a great deal of work to be done in respect of building and growing all that.

I will come back to the point I opened with on the situation in Gaza. The Government needs to be seen to be standing very strong in respect of that. The occupied territories Bill is the one Bill we can put forward, united across the House, to deal with that situation in an effective way and show leadership globally.

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