Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the sub-sea cables issue, we need to be careful not to over react to a potential threat but we cannot ignore it either. The Nordstream I and 2 pipelines are, because of the nature of those pipelines, particularly controversial given what is happening in Ukraine and the various different pressures regarding the use of energy and energy supply as part of a hybrid war tool. That said, we have already had a meeting with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Gas Networks Ireland and EirGrid on an appropriate response here. I think we will see increased patrols in the relevant areas in both the Irish Sea and Atlantic by both the Naval Service and the Air Corps. We will also look at the equipment that may be necessary to improve our capacity in that space.

On training structures, I am absolutely committed to a national defence academy and building a modern fit-for-purpose large-scale training centre, probably in Gormanstown, where we can train more than 1,000 people a year. We do not have that capacity at the moment and if we are going to add 400, 500 or 600 people to the Permanent Defence Forces each year, then we have to train and recruit between 1,000 and 1,200 people but maybe even slightly more because of the people we will lose every year. To do that, then we need to change the training infrastructure. Of course, the Curragh will be central to an awful lot but I think Gormanstown will be tailored, or designed, for the large numbers of people hitting the standards we expect in the Defence Forces because we are not going to solve this problem by just dumbing down training and making it easier to pass the various thresholds that are necessary. I think we can do that. As part of that, we need to make a case for allowances for specialist training and so on to get the trainers we need to deal with those kind of numbers. I will happily come back to the House and report on developments as they proceed.

In terms of what was said by Senator Wilson, I have clarified some of the budget issues. We had an unusual budget this year. First, there was a budget for the remainder of this year, a budget for next year and, of course, we had to accommodate the potential for, or expected acceptance of, a pay deal. We could not announce the results on budget day because we had to wait for the ballots to come in. There is money factored into the budget for the acceptance of a pay deal but it has not been put into the Estimates for various Departments until that is confirmed.