Results 21-40 of 45,373 for speaker:Simon Harris

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Meetings (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: -----that has to do with national security the arms industry. We are going to need to procure radar, sonar and uniforms for the men and women of the Defence Forces. The Deputy may disagree but the Government is clear that we are going to level of ambition 2 as set out in the Commission on the Defence Forces report. We then want to go to level of ambition 3. That is going to require...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I join with Deputy Smith and Uachtarán na hÉireann in paying tribute to our Civil Defence volunteers. It is an incredible organisation. While lots of things did not go to plan during Storm Éowyn, I was briefly in Monaghan in the Deputy's constituency while on the way back from somewhere else and met some of the Civil Defence volunteers and the work they did was incredible. I...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cybersecurity Policy (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: The Deputy is absolutely correct. One of the issues the Government is giving consider to is that ecosystem. The Deputy will be aware that we have established for the first time a Cabinet committee on national security, chaired by the Taoiseach, in which I and the Minister for Justice participate. We are developing a national security strategy. I agree cyber affects us. Deputy Heneghan...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Smith for the question. The Deputy is correct. Recruitment and retention have to be a key priority for Government because so much else of what we want to do, in terms of the national security space, the capability of the Defence Forces and the infrastructure we want to purchase and secure, relies on having men and women to operate and operationalise much of that. Figures...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Smith. I may have a look at that. The point the Deputy makes is a fair one. We are seeing an increase, thankfully, in the number of people joining the Defence Forces. We want to see a greater increase in diversity within the Defence Forces, and most particularly in terms of female participation. I am pleased to say that already a number of initiatives have been...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I fully agree with the Deputy. When we talk about the Defence Forces, we need to talk about the total number of men and women who are available to come to the aid of the State, if and when that is required. Of course, an important component of that is the Permanent Defence Forces but it is also important that there is inter-locking between that and the Reserve Defence Forces' men and women...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Air Corps (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire. The differentiation he has made between the two processes is useful. The point he is making to me is that a number of people are not involved in legal proceedings, and they never wish to be involved in legal proceedings for whatever reason, but there are health issues that either have impacted them or are impacting them and their families have concerns about...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cybersecurity Policy (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 157 and 165 together. I can advise the Deputies that the Defence Forces have established a new joint cyberdefence command. This new command will be able to conduct full spectrum operations to robustly defend against cyberthreats and support Defence Forces operations at home and overseas, and enhance national cyberdefence resilience and contingent...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cybersecurity Policy (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I am checking the tenses in my answer, and my answer tells me the Defence Forces have established a new joint cyberdefence command. The truth is in what I said. We have seen the assignment of 19 Defence Forces specialist posts to kick-start the unit and it is headed up by someone of general rank. Deputy Ó Laoghaire is also correct that we are filling the principal officer role for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Neutrality (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: We are not doing that. Any missions we participate in will have to be in line with the values of the UN Charter. In fairness to everybody in this House, we are having this debate before we all have a chance to scrutinise the legislation, and I accept that reality. I am looking forward to getting to tease it out line by line so we can all understand what we are being asked or not asked to do.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Neutrality (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: The timeline is “very shortly”, that is, I expect I will be in a position to publish it this month. Certainly, it will be published very shortly, but in and around that time. I have a difference of view to Deputy Ó Laoghaire on this. I think people in Ireland do differentiate between military neutrality and the triple lock. I know politicians do not pay any attention...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Neutrality (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: A specific example of where we wanted to participate was the European Union peace operation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. When the European Union wants to deploy peacekeepers and the Irish Government and the Dáil want to deploy peacekeepers, I do not think it is up to Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin or, frankly, anybody else to decide whether we can do that.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Air Corps (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and for constructively discussing it with me at the last parliamentary questions session on defence matters. I have had engagement with my officials to try to tease through some of this since we last discussed this. As I set out on the last occasion this was raised in the House, and I feel obliged to repeat now, any discussion we have or certainly...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Air Corps (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: Maybe I was not clear but I thought I was saying something similar. There is a process ongoing in relation to the State Claims Agency trying to see if the legal cases can be resolved in a way that is to the satisfaction of both parties. In addition to that, I have also asked my officials, on the basis of the last exchange we had, to give consideration to other actions we may be able to take...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defence Forces (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: We certainly do not and there is no proposal to join NATO or anything like it. I value military neutrality. Understanding and debating what it means, though, is very useful. It means being militarily unaligned but one can be militarily unaligned and still take national security and defence seriously. I accept there are very different views in the House on the terms, conditions and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Neutrality (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: Are the Deputies happy to do them in this order?

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Neutrality (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: So we will do this and come back. Is that okay?

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Neutrality (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputies Gibney and Ó Laoghaire for raising this important question. I accept we approach this from very different points of view. I do not doubt the Deputies' bona fides on this and ask that they do not doubt mine. I value military neutrality. I am not proposing Ireland joins any military alliances; I am proposing that the triple lock in its current form poses challenges and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Military Neutrality (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: Can I ask a question back? Does the Deputy accept there are countries in the world which are absolutely neutral militarily and there is no question of it, and which do not deploy a triple lock mechanism for their decisions around peacekeeping? I genuinely do not believe the issues should be conflated. There are a number of examples. The European Union peace operation in the former...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Defence Forces (8 May 2025)

Simon Harris: We are not.