Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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40. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence his engagement with the relevant stakeholders in ensuring safe guarding of communication subsea cables in Irish waters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22885/23]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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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 defence and security operations (MDSO). As such any Naval Service patrol should be viewed as a multi-faceted activity. This activity is augmented by the Air Corps Maritime Patrol Squadron 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 October 2022 to discuss 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.

While the Defence Forces have limited sub-sea capabilities, enhanced maritime patrolling of the Irish Sea in the vicinity of priority offshore energy infrastructure commenced in 2022 and remains ongoing. This enhanced patrolling is being conducted by a mixture of air and naval platforms. Officials from my Department 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.