Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Conway for raising this issue. The Minister, Deputy Harris, cannot be here but I am very happy to be here. I am also very happy to hear a good explanation of the need for defence policy because many of the Senator's colleagues on the Opposition benches often openly question the need to spend anything more on defence than we are spending now. The Senator has set out correctly why we have a defence policy. It is to protect the island and everything about it and connected to it.

The Government is taking measures to safeguard subsea communication cables in Irish waters. Obviously, we cannot comment on specific security actions, but the following examples highlight the Government's commitment to enhancing the protection of undersea cables through our broader security initiatives.

Our approach to the protection of critical subsea infrastructure is multifaceted and includes enhanced monitoring, robust regulatory frameworks and strengthening co-operation with stakeholders. The security of Ireland's subsea infrastructure is a matter of most importance, with maritime security representing a priority action area for this Government. The Government has underscored the importance of maritime security through the commitment of the Department of Defence to lead in the co-ordination and development of Ireland's first national maritime security strategy.It is being prepared in co-operation with national and international stakeholders and the private sector. It will take account of recent geopolitical developments, which have demonstrated the importance of the protection of critical undersea infrastructure. Protecting such infrastructure requires collaboration within the State and, as the Senator mentioned, between states to develop a full understanding of what is occurring in the sea.

The Tánaiste has recently approved Defence Forces participation in the common information sharing environment, CISE. There was a bit of criticism of this as well. It is an EU initiative that enables structured and secure information sharing among EU maritime authorities, both civil and military, allowing for more effective operations at sea. CISE will play a crucial role in increasing awareness of maritime activities and improving responses to growing threats at sea, including physical and cyberattacks on our critical undersea infrastructure.

Ireland is observing on the PESCO project on critical seabed infrastructure protection, which aims to increase the EU's operational efficiency in the protection of critical maritime infrastructure. Participation in the project will help in Ireland's mitigation of the risks posed to subsea architecture. This PESCO project will examine the strengthening of capabilities with regard to protecting critical undersea infrastructure, thereby increasing its security and resilience. Government and Dáil approval has been granted for Ireland to join the project. The process of requesting participant status has started.

The Minister for Defence chairs the Government task force on emergency planning. A subgroup of this task force produced the first guideline document on critical infrastructure resilience in February 2019 and it was updated in July 2021. While the primary responsibility for safeguarding critical infrastructure rests with the owner or operator, the guideline document provides the methodology for operators of essential services to follow to enhance resilience. It also outlines that it is the responsibility of each Department to foster links and work closely with semi-State and private sector operators of our critical infrastructure to enhance protection of that infrastructure from a wide variety of threats.

Last year, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications ran a consultation on international connectivity for telecommunications. The purpose of this was to gain a better understanding of the subsea market as a whole, as well as to gain more insight into individual cable systems at firm level to ensure Ireland is served by a suitably diverse, resilient and reliable cable system. The consultation received strong feedback from subsea cable owners, operators and developers.

In light of threats to EU critical infrastructure arising from geopolitical developments and subsequent attacks on pipelines in other jurisdictions, the Department engaged directly with the owners of subsea telecoms cables to obtain up-to-date mapping information so that relevant State entities have this on hand. The Department of Defence continues to work with the Department of the environment on this and the results of the tests have been shared with the Commission as part of a cross-EU process.

Crucially, patrolling of the Irish Sea in the vicinity of priority offshore infrastructure continues to take place by a mixture of air and naval platforms and the naval operations command centre in Haulbowline remotely monitors vessels in the Irish exclusive economic zone on a 24-7 basis.