Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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50. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence to detail his Department’s engagement with European Union partners in respect of the defence of critical infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22899/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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My Department works closely with a number of European Union working groups in order to enhance and build societal resilience including the protection of critical infrastructure.

My Department is the focal point for the new European Critical Entities Resilience Directive which aims to enhance the resilience of critical entities that provide services essential for vital societal functions or economic activities in the internal market. This Directive creates a framework to support Member States in ensuring that critical entities are able to prevent, resist, absorb and recover from disruptive incidents, whether they are caused by natural hazards, accidents, terrorism, insider threats, or public health emergencies. My Department has coordinated with sector specific experts throughout the negotiation of the Directive and will continue to do so as we transpose the legislation into Irish law. This coordination is being achieved through the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning, which I chair.

Key elements of this directive include that Ireland needs to adopt a national strategy and carry out risk assessments to identify entities that are considered critical or vital for the society and the economy. On their part, critical entities once identified will need to carry out risk assessments of their own and take technical, security and organisational measures to enhance their resilience and notify incidents. My Department works with other Member states and the European Commission through the Critical Entities Resilience Group (CERG) which provide complementary support to Member States and critical entities, by developing an EU-level overview of cross-border and cross-sectoral risks, best practices, guidance material, methodologies, cross-border training activities and exercises to test the resilience of critical entities, among others.

Officials from my Department are also active participants in the EU presidency-led Ad Hoc working party on preparedness, response capability and resilience to future crises and the Civil Protection – Critical Entities Resilience (PROCIV-CER) working group. Both these working groups focus on supporting the implementation of the Critical Entities Resilience directive by providing a forum for discussion on best practices, guidance material and methodologies in the enhancement of societal resilience and protection of critical infrastructure across the European Union.

In advance of the transposition of this directive, the European Council Recommendation on a coordinated approach by the Union to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure was agreed. This requires all Member States to conduct stress tests of critical infrastructure, particularly in the Energy sector, by the end of 2023. My Department is working closely with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and with Critical Entities in the Energy sector to undertake these stress tests by the agreed deadline of end 2023.