Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome to the House. I welcome the report of the commission and the Government's response to it. It is tremendously important that we take this issue seriously. For too long it has been left on the back burner. I have heard criticisms of the inflationary effects of the current environment. We hope those effects will not be permanent. I welcome the fact the Government has committed to providing the funding necessary to get to the level identified.

I have an American intern working with me at the moment, Brenna Nealon. I was trying to explain to her today the difference between attitudes to militarisation here and in America. To say she was astonished that we do not have the radar capability to identify planes flying in over our west coast, for example, in certain situations is an understatement. Items like that, in a modern country like Ireland, are difficult to understand. It is right and proper that we should put in place measures to address significant lacunae and deficits in our defence of this island. I welcome that and the investment in the Defence Forces and, particularly, the personnel in the Defence Forces, which comes part and parcel of the investment. The Defence Forces cannot exist, in real terms, without the morale of the people who staff it, run it and make it excellent being as high as possible. I welcome that the Government is committed to addressing those issues.

As we take steps forward in providing a greater facility for the Defence Forces, the Minister will remember that I have raised with him on a number of occasions the possibility of the extension of the Naval Service. As an island nation, it is appropriate that we should have in place significant cover across our coasts to defend them in all the ways they need to be defended, from customs to drug trafficking, smuggling and whatever else. I welcome the announcement of the purchase of two coastal patrol vessels from the New Zealand navy and I welcome the fact that the Irish Sea as an Irish and, now, EU border will also be properly patrolled. I cannot help seeing the obvious place to base such a patrol is in Dún Laoghaire Harbour, where there is capacity, room and great excitement among the local people.