Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

At the outset, I very much agree with the Deputy. For an island nation, the development of a robust, comprehensive national maritime security strategy is key. Indeed, this was identified as a priority in last year's defence policy review. I am pleased to say that the strategy is now being developed in consultation with national and international stakeholders and it is expected to be delivered to me for consideration before the end of the year. In support of the development of the strategy, my Department held a public consultation over the summer to gauge people’s views and to try to build consensus on the diverse threats, risks, challenges and opportunities that are faced by our country in the maritime domain. I am pleased to say the public consultation got a lot of engagement. Approximately 300 submissions were received from a wide range of interested parties and stakeholders, including a number of Departments, academia and industry, but also members of the public. Initial analysis of the submissions has now taken place. I got a note on this the other day. It indicated that there is strong support for a strategy. There is also a very clear understanding from the public of Ireland's most urgent maritime security challenges, particularly the growing threats to critical undersea infrastructure; that came up quite a lot. We also detected significant support for international co-operation to improve maritime security. Analysis of the submissions is ongoing and the input gathered will serve as a critical foundation for shaping a robust and forward-looking national maritime security strategy to ensure Ireland is well prepared to meet current and future challenges in our maritime domain.

Regarding the funding of any capabilities or the funding of the strategy as per the previous question, capital funding of €1.7 billion has been allocated to the defence development plan for the period 2026 to 2030. This is an increase of €600 million and a 55% increase on our capital funding from the previous baseline figure. This indicates a significant commitment to continuing to increase investment in our defence infrastructure as well. We will be outlining how we intend to take that forward in our sectoral investment plan in the coming weeks.

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