Results 38,741-38,760 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defence Forces (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: They have not been agreed yet, so the representative bodies cannot be fully supportive of something that has not been agreed yet.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defence Forces (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: That is why we have a sub-committee in place. We have asked the senior management - the Chief of Staff and his team - to make recommendations on what they see as necessary in terms of exemptions and derogations from the working time directive to allow the military to function in certain circumstances. We have an ongoing process of consulting the representatives associations, which I suspect...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Maritime Jurisdiction (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: The Naval Service, as the State's principal sea-going agency, is tasked with a variety of defence and other roles. While the main daily task of the Naval Service is to provide a fishery protection service in accordance with our obligations as an EU member state, it also carries out a number of other non-fishery related tasks in tandem with maritime surveillance. The Air Corps maritime...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Maritime Jurisdiction (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: I did not suggest anything was handed over to the private sector; I just gave the Deputy a statement of fact on what EirGrid is doing. One of the reasons we established the Commission on the Defence Forces in the first place was that I and others in Government felt there were capacity issues that needed to be addressed. That is why we have committed to spending significantly increased...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Maritime Jurisdiction (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: There is ongoing work between An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces to ensure that when the latter need to provide an aid to civil power or support for the Garda, it happens in as seamless a way as we can make it. Ireland needs to look at its broader defence and security policy, including the relationship between An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces, whether in...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Budgets (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 and 88 together. For 2023, the total allocation for the Defence group is €1.174 billion, comprising €893 million for Vote 36, Defence, and €281 million for Vote 35, Army pensions. This is an overall increase of €67 million on 2022 and double the increase last year. The allocation reflects the commitment of the Government to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Budgets (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: I will answer Deputy Richmond's second question first. Work being undertaken includes the provision of a new cadet school in the Curragh Camp, the development of the university students administrative complement, USAC, student facility in Galway, the development of a new military medical facility and other facilities to improve Casement Aerodrome, accommodation upgrades in multiple locations...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Budgets (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: There will always be incidents that test our systems and capacity. Last year, we were talking about our experience of getting people out of Kabul. People were rightly raising the question of whether we have a medium-range lift capacity in our Defence Forces which would enable them to take people out of a part of the world where we need to get people out quickly, and what we are doing about...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Funding (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 74 and 90 together. For 2023, the total allocation for Vote 36 – defence is €893 million, which is an overall increase of €57 million on 2022, doubling the increase for defence from last year. As the Deputy said, the defence capital allocation has increased by €35 million, up to €176 million. In truth, we will spend more...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Funding (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: What I did not mention previously in terms of capital investment next year was the actual physical build investment in the Defence Forces training camp at the Curragh, the development of a student facility in Galway, along with facilities improvements and accommodation upgrades in multiple different barracks locations. I should mention that. What happened with Nord Stream 1 and Nord...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Funding (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: I am absolutely committed to that. We have a very large sea area at surface level and below, which, as the Deputy said, is more than ten times the size of our land surface. I suspect we are going to build offshore infrastructure worth tens if not hundreds of billions of euro not only to power Ireland but also to power other countries in Europe in the future. We are about to embark on an...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Defence Forces (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: The White Paper on Defence, which was approved by the Government in July 2015, resulted from a comprehensive examination of defence requirements. It provides the defence policy framework for the period up to 2025. This policy framework is designed to be flexible and responsive given the dynamic nature of the security environment and enables the defence organisation to be adaptive to...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Defence Forces (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: The biggest challenge we have is in personnel. At the moment, the numbers in our Defence Forces are a long way short of where we need to be. That is the case not only in the Naval Service but also in the Army and the Air Corps. We must turn the tide to start gaining momentum and achieving a sense that we are adding people each year, as a net figure. As I said earlier, if we are to achieve...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Defence Forces (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: We are not yet where we need to be as regards planning, but we are working on that. The Chief of Staff, the Secretary General and I had a long trilateral meeting at the PDFORRA conference yesterday during which we talked predominantly about recruitment and retention, and what needs to be done in the short and medium term to turn around numbers that have been moving in the wrong direction for...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Energy Infrastructure (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: I propose to take Questions Nos. 76, 105 and 110 together. As I stated when answering Question No. 72, the Naval Service, as the State's principal seagoing agency, is tasked with a variety of defence and other roles. While the main daily tasking of the Naval Service is to provide a fishery protection service in accordance with our obligations as an EU member state, it also carries out a...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Energy Infrastructure (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: I hope this is a statement of the obvious for people in this House - not all national security matters are appropriate to discuss on the floor of the Dáil. We are of course speaking to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and his Department regarding what the Defence Forces can do to use the capacity we have to act as a deterrent and to provide as much...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Energy Infrastructure (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: The new vessels are inshore patrol vessels that can be crewed with fewer people than the ships they are replacing. They are much more efficient and much more modern vessels. I hope they will arrive long before this time next year. I hope to see them in the first quarter, perhaps in January or February. They will primarily be based in the Irish Sea. They will certainly be based there in...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Energy Infrastructure (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: We have aircraft now.

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Energy Infrastructure (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: We have CASA aircraft but we also have PC-12s and PC-9Ms. Let us not paint the picture that we have no capacity. It is clear that we need to improve our capacity and to invest in subsea surveillance capacity in particular. That needs to be factored into the provision and equipping of new ships coming in, particularly the multirole vessel. This will be a very expensive piece of equipment...

Ceisteanna Eile (Atógáil) - Other Questions (Resumed): Energy Infrastructure (6 Oct 2022)

Simon Coveney: We are having the appropriate conversations with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. We are also speaking to the infrastructure owners so that we can respond with the capacity that is available to us in an appropriate way that manages risk. That is about as much as I can say for now. The attacks on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 surprised a lot of people. They...