Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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361. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he is satisfied with the current patrols and monitoring off the south coast of Ireland to safeguard the communications cabling in Irish waters; the level of Russian activity that has been identified to date in Irish waters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57745/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Naval Service, as the State's principal sea-going agency, is tasked with a variety of defence and other roles. While the main daily tasking of the Naval Service is to provide a fishery protection service in accordance with our obligations as a member of the EU, it also carries out a number of other non-fishery related tasks in tandem with maritime surveillance.

The Air Corps Maritime Patrol Squadron also supports this role providing aerial assistance to the Naval Service in patrolling the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) using the two CASA CN 235 maritime patrol aircraft which are equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance and communication equipment.

Following an extraordinary EU Energy Council meeting in September which discussed the EU’s energy security in response to the attacks on Nordstream 1 and 2, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications sought support from my Department in relation to additional measures that could be put in place by the Defence Forces to ensure that critical off-shore infrastructure including data cables are protected.

The Department of Defence and the Defence Forces continue to engage with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in relation to the protection of Ireland’s offshore energy infrastructure and data cables. While the Defence Forces have limited sub-sea capabilities, enhanced maritime patrolling of the Irish Sea in the vicinity of priority offshore energy infrastructure has commenced. The enhanced patrolling is being conducted by a mixture of air and naval platforms.

In relation Russian activity in Irish waters, a number of Russian ships have been observed inside the Irish EEZ in recent months. These ships have been monitored by Irish Naval Service vessels as they transited through the Irish EEZ.

International law, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), allows for all vessels to transit through another state’s territorial waters when conducting innocent passage as defined by Article 19 of UNCLOS. Furthermore, naval vessels are permitted to conduct exercises outside of territorial waters in a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone so long as this does not unduly interfere with the Coastal State. Any vessels transiting Irish waters must do so in compliance with international law and may be subject to sighting and observation by the Naval Service and Air Corps without their innocent passage being infringed.

Infringement of these obligations under international law would be a serious matter and would be addressed by the Government accordingly.