Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I read this morning that we are now down to one ship to patrol our western shores. That is deeply worrying. I would like to have a debate in this House on what I call the Atlantic fleet. I believe the assets that exist off the west coast of Ireland and the west coasts of France, Spain and Portugal right the whole way down and whole way up north to Norway, Finland, etc, should be patrolled as a European Union. The time has come for the European family to pool its resources and have a shared Atlantic Ocean that would be patrolled by all states.

The only criteria I would see is that if, for example, a French naval ship was sailing through Irish waters and found a bad actor acting illegally in our waters, it would have the powers of arrest and would be forced to land the offending ship to the nearest port. Therefore, a French ship could land an offending rogue into an Irish port to be dealt with under Irish law. It is the only way.

Consider the amount of data that is crossing through our economic zone. We cannot protect it. As a European family, we could protect it. We have to start as a nation building alliances with like-minded countries to protect the assets that run the economies of the world. That includes undersea cables, gas lines, electricity interconnectors and all of that.

I ask for a debate with the Minister for Defence on that specific issue. It is great to see that we have aligned ourselves to some degree with NATO with respect to intelligence, etc. However, do we honestly believe we were fully at the table with all intelligence? No, we do not. Do I want Ireland not to be neutral? No, I do not. I want us to be neutral, but a neutral country that can stand proud with other countries in this world and not interdependent, as is suggested by some. We are totally dependent. Therefore, I would like to have that debate. I would appreciate it if the Leader could arrange that.