Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the level of preparedness within the Defence Forces to respond to cyber or physical interference via subsea communication cables; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60462/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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This question has been asked twice already, so it is good that I have a clear insight. My question refers to the preparedness within the Defence Forces to respond to cyber and physical interference. I will discuss how we should strengthen our interconnectivity in terms of not only data but also electricity. The Minister knows I want our system to be decentralised and for there to be private wires. I want an update on the readiness of our Defence Forces.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Heneghan for continually raising this matter since his election to the House. My colleague the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has the lead role for cyber security and the Department receives inputs in the security domain from An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. The National Cyber Security Centre, which, as is appropriate, is now part of that Department, is the authority responsible for cybersecurity in the State, including incident response, cyber resilience and information provision.

To develop this cyber defence capability, the Defence Forces have established a joint cyber defence command. This new command will be capable of conducting the full spectrum of cyber defence operations at home and overseas, to enhance national cyber defence resilience and contingent capabilities. Additional staff have been approved to resource cyber command in achieving its initial operational capacity.

Turning specifically to the offshore infrastructure to which the Deputy referred, my officials continue to engage with the Departments of Climate, Energy and the Environment and communications on the protection of Ireland’s offshore infrastructure. The Defence Forces routinely carry out monitoring and surveillance of Ireland’s exclusive economic zone, EEZ, using our Naval Service assets and Air Corps maritime patrol aircraft. In addition to at-sea monitoring, the naval operations command centre in Haulbowline carries out remote monitoring 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I look forward to visiting it this month to be further briefed and view its work.

Challenges with putting ships to sea have been well documented and were discussed in the House earlier. This year, we are seeing the benefits of a number of initiatives I have overseen, such as the patrol duty allowance, with the number of patrol days to date having exceeded the total number of patrol days completed in 2024. We have already seen more ships at sea for more days at sea this year than we did over the whole of last year. The Naval Service continues to maintain a constant presence in the Irish EEZ.

Earlier this year, I approved the Defence Forces' participation in the common information sharing environment, CISE. This will support better monitoring and surveillance of growing threats at sea and will help improve the Defence Forces maritime domain awareness. In other words, we exchange information with other European countries. This will be of significant importance to our maritime security.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for the update. Saturday is the one-year anniversary of the death of former Senator Billy Lawless, on the day the general election was called. I want to put on the record of the House that his previous PA is working with my team. In her words, there is not much to say about him but simply that it was a huge pleasure to have worked with him and he was one of a kind. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

This issue is important because the economy and our infrastructure now depend heavily on undersea cables and other hidden networks. As an island, we are uniquely vulnerable, something I know the Minister is well aware of. Therefore, the ability of the Defence Forces' ability to respond to cyber and physical interference is a matter of national security and resilience.

The private wire piece will help in this regard when paired with long-duration energy storage, which we are discussing in the climate and energy committee. It will strengthen our national security by reducing our dependence and decentralising our current energy system. It will create micro grids across the country in specific areas with hospitals and schools that need energy, in case we ever come under attack or suffer damage to our cables, although we hope we never will.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Heneghan for reminding us of the forthcoming anniversary of Senator Lawless, a man I had the honour and privilege of knowing and serving with in these Houses. He was a man that my predecessor, Enda Kenny, was honoured to appoint to Seanad Éireann. He served with distinction in the Seanad but he also served with distinction beyond the Seanad, both as an incredible businessman and an incredible advocate for Irish people in America, most particularly in Chicago. I know he had very close links with the Obama Administration. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. We think of him and his family and the Deputy's member of staff at this time.

The point the Deputy makes is right and I will ask my defence advisers to give further consideration to that. I ran out of time the last time but I did want to say that we have just announced the signing of a multimillion euro contract with Thales DMS for the provision of towed sonar capability for the Defence Forces. That, too, is going to make a big difference in terms of our security because the new sonar capability will now be used on Irish naval vessels to monitor activities in the Irish exclusive economic zone, in particular in the vicinity of our subsea communication cables or our gas pipelines. As I said in response to an earlier question, work is also ongoing on the development of radar capability. I will keep the Deputy up to date.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I thank the Tánaiste for his kind words. Back to the same point, I am delighted to hear about the investments going into protecting our offshore infrastructure. However, in relation to the benefits of private wires not only will it help the investments the Government will be making but it will allow critical infrastructure, businesses and communities, to generate and use power locally. By creating those semi-independent energy hubs, they can then operate off the grid if our grid is ever physically attacked or there is a cyberattack. By decentralising the supply and removing the single points of failure of our offshore supply, private wires make Ireland's overall energy system more resilient, more secure and far better. It will also help with the housing crisis and it will help with the cost per unit of electricity because we are increasing the supply and reducing the demand. Everyone will benefit from this. I met with the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, last week regarding my Bill and I hope to get support from across the House.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for his work on this and for his advocacy and the time he is putting into it. The Government largely agrees with his position on this. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, leads for the Government in terms of the private wires legislation. I will ask that he keep in close contact with the Deputy in relation to this. The Deputy is right, however. I have been briefed on this and I, too, am convinced that this assists in relation to housing, energy costs and our ability to attract investment into Ireland. At a time when energy, energy security and energy supply is under such pressure - not just here but across the European Union - we need to be innovative, flexible and able to work in a number of different directions to try to get to where we need to get to. I will ask the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to continue to liaise closely with the Deputy.