Albert Dolan
Question:1. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Taoiseach if he will outline the engagements he has had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [6356/25]
Ceisteanna - Questions
Emergency Planning
Eamon Scanlon
Question:2. Deputy Eamon Scanlon asked the Taoiseach the engagements he had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [6488/25]
Cathal Crowe
Question:3. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Taoiseach the engagements he had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [6490/25]
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:4. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach the engagements he had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [10820/25]
Brendan Smith
Question:5. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach if he will outline the engagements he has had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [10847/25]
Martin Daly
Question:6. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach the engagements he has had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [11060/25]
Rose Conway-Walsh
Question:7. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach the engagements he has had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [12470/25]
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:8. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach the engagements he had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [13484/25]
John Connolly
Question:9. Deputy John Connolly asked the Taoiseach the engagements he had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [13732/25]
Ivana Bacik
Question:10. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach the engagements he had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [13742/25]
Rose Conway-Walsh
Question:11. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach the engagements he has had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after, storm Éowyn. [13818/25]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:12. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach the engagements he has had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [15506/25]
Paul Murphy
Question:13. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach the engagements he has had with the National Emergency Co-ordination Group in the days before, during and after storm Éowyn. [15509/25]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 13, inclusive, together.
The National Emergency Co-ordination Group is the central Government platform, established as part of the response to a threatened or ongoing national level emergency, under the strategic emergency management framework. All Government Departments, local authorities, emergency services and agencies are represented on the NECG.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is the relevant lead Department under the strategic emergency management framework, activated the NECG when it became clear that Storm Éowyn would be a severe weather event. The first meeting of the NECG was held on Wednesday, 22 January, and the NEC continued to meet daily up to and including Monday, 10 February. The Department of the Taoiseach was represented at all meetings of the NECG and its related subgroups over the period 22 January to 10 February.
During this time I was briefed on the work of the NECG daily by senior officials and advisers in the Department of An Taoiseach. I also received personally a number of briefings from the chair of the NECG. I also had briefings with the Ministers, Deputies Browne, Calleary and O'Brien, and senior officials from their respective Departments regarding the co-ordinated response being overseen by the NECG, the humanitarian assistance scheme operated by the Department of Social Protection and the progress being made by energy, water and communications utilities in restoring services. Further, since the standing down of the NECG and its various subgroups, I have met with the relevant Ministers, officials, including the chair of the NECG, and State agencies to discuss responsiveness and lessons learned with the aim of improving our resilience and informing future preparedness for severe weather events.
While the storm may be over, the impacts are still being felt heavily in Galway East and in the west of Ireland. In my own community of Monivea, our beautiful woods have been completely destroyed as have Coillte properties and community GAA facilities. What lessons have been learned and what actions will we take in the future? Just because the storm is over now does not mean we can forget about it. It is vital that we move forward progressively to ensure we are ready for the next storm and, as the Taoiseach said, resilient.
As the Taoiseach knows, parts of my constituency of Sligo-Leitrim and south Donegal saw some of the worst damage, with areas still reeling from the effects, particularly in forested areas of Leitrim and Sligo. As recently as yesterday, we had constituents contacting our office whose phone lines are still out of service, some of them since Storm Darragh. I have said on the record before that it is crucial for landowners, including forestry operators, to understand their responsibilities in maintaining safe distances between trees and power lines. We need a comprehensive survey of all forestry areas where power lines are in close proximity to trees. This survey should be conducted by officials from the Department of agriculture rather than Coillte or private forestry owners. We have to identify trees that pose a future risk to power lines to ensure the necessary actions, including removal, are taken to mitigate these risks. The programme for Government includes a commitment to develop an extreme weather event assistance scheme for homes, community, organisations, farmers and businesses. It is crucial that we provide specific supports for each sector to ensure we have the funding to respond to future extreme weather events.
I agree with colleagues who have spoken about the need to prepare for the next storm or the next major weather event. For a number of years I have been highlighting the dangers posed by falling trees every year. My west Cavan area, along with Deputy Eamon Scanlon's area in south Leitrim, have for many years annually suffered due to trees falling and interfering with and damaging ESB transmission lines. We need a robust approach to proper maintenance of forests, be they in public ownership or of private landowners. We also want to ensure that the electricity grid is upgraded and more resilient. Allied to that, we need to ensure that the grid of our telecommunications networks is resilient as well. I have had constituents on to me today from both Monaghan and Cavan who have no landlines and no broadband. There are many elderly people living on their own who depend on that button that they can press if they are in any difficulty. That emergency call system does not work if they do not have a landline or broadband. This is extremely urgent. There must be major Government investment along with the public utilities in ensuring that those grids, be it the energy grid or the telecommunications grid, are up to standard to literally weather any future storms.
I am well aware that the Taoiseach visited the Roscommon-Galway constituency in the aftermath of the storm and witnessed first hand the devastation that was caused. I think he was taken aback by the level of devastation caused by Storm Éowyn. It is clear that up to 80% of the power outages were caused by forestry falls. We really have to learn the lesson about the establishment of tree corridors and proper forestry husbandry. Even in the aftermath of that, in many places in my constituency there are still trees causing hazard to telecommunication lines and electricity poles. I pay due respect to the ESB network crews who worked on the ground, but the ESB has to plan better to make its system more resilient. It is in the national interest.
As regards people being without water for up to 21 days, we really have to ensure that Uisce Éireann makes sure that water supply is again more resilient and generator-ready and the same with water schemes. Telecommunications was another element that was not restored in quick time. Electricity came back and water came back, but some of the telecommunications companies did not re-establish proper telecommunications in our area for a considerable time after the storm. I think there was a lax attitude to that. It is simply not acceptable in this day and age, when we depend on telecommunications and Wi-Fi communication.
The emergency hubs worked very well. We should continue to invest in our local infrastructure, whether it is in sports or community halls. I think the Taoiseach saw that first hand in Ballaghaderreen and in Kiltoom, in Athlone.
We need to have a review of the humanitarian assistance scheme and outline how it is used, what the rules are around it and what the benefits are to people in situations of distress.
The lack of urgency in the Government's response to the storm was quite bizarre. The storm was on 21 January, and the Taoiseach said there was a meeting on 22 January, but - and maybe he can correct this - warnings of the ferocity of the storm were sent out days in advance, yet there was no effective co-ordinated plan in the aftermath. I will tell the Taoiseach what I think the problem was. Whatever co-ordination there was at a national level, it did not seep down through. We will discuss this in fuller detail in our Private Members' time tonight, but what we need to make absolutely certain is that we have a proper, co-ordinated plan going forward as to who does what, when they do it and what the outcome of that is. People are still absolutely perplexed that the Army was not brought in, particularly to clear the trees and to clear the way for the workers from the ESB. We need to do much better the next time because there will be a next time.
There have been question marks as to how prepared we were for a storm that we realised was coming. What we do into the future is about ensuring we have not only a plan but the capacity built into the system to deal with these sorts of circumstances, of which we will see more. Has there been a review by the NECG as to how the storm was dealt with and what we can do as regards ensuring we deal with these better into the future? Others have talked about the energy grid, water and communications. My constituency did not get the worst but many people there were out of action as regards communications and energy for long periods. We have huge issues with water infrastructure, and while water charges will not be the means by which these will be dealt with, we need to make sure we put the correct resources in to ensure that we have something that is properly robust. We need to look at the likes of CFRAM, natural flood barriers and all those other necessary technologies that can improve situations. We also need to look at our schemes. The humanitarian assistance scheme needs to be looked at as do schemes to pay farmers or whatever, because we will have more of these instances of extreme weather into the future.
It is difficult for people to believe that in the ten weeks since Storm Éowyn, people are still suffering landline and broadband outages. As my colleagues have said, that is across many parts of the country. We must ask what obligation the companies with whom we entrusted the responsibility for communications infrastructure to the citizens of the State have to the Government and to the people. It seems that some of that responsibility has been lost. There are still locations experiencing residual impact from the level of damage done to the electricity network. In fairness to the ESB, it has engaged with elected representatives around that issue and there has been an acknowledgment that some of the restoration and the remedial work that has been done has been of a stopgap nature.
We must now try to make sure that the proper infrastructure is in place to ensure the network does not suffer further outages. The public deserves to be reassured by all of these agencies in a public forum that they will all continue to be conscious of the impact another such weather event might have. I advocate for these agencies, including the NECG, to be invited to presented to a Dáil committee, when committees are established, to reassure the public about the future and about their preparations for such events.
On the necessity for the nation to be prepared for such events, the west is suffering disproportionately from climate change. We know that. The weather data highlights that. Of the 14 storms of last winter, the west had the highest sustained wind speeds and gust speeds in seven. The impact is greater there. With regard to climate adaptation measures and the funds and investment necessary to make the country more resilient, the west should be prioritised.
We have spoken in this Chamber before about the significant delays in the Government's response to the scale of Storm Éowyn. With climate change, there are likely to be stronger storms in future. We need preparations. Some years ago, after flash floods in Louth, the then Minister, Simon Coveney, committed to putting business flood relief schemes on a permanent statutory footing. I believe that is the Government's plan. With Storm Éowyn, however, we saw that, while the Department of Social Protection can activate its humanitarian assistance scheme very quickly, it can take longer to source supports for community groups and small businesses. That must be addressed.
There is a further key problem in that, even where flood defences are put in place, many insurers continue to refuse to offer flood protection to homes and businesses. In the UK, there is Flood Re, a reinsurance scheme to promote affordability and availability of insurance for British households that are at a higher risk of flooding. This is a very serious issue in my own constituency, particularly in coastal communities around Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount where it can be very difficult for households to get flood insurance even where there are flood defences in place. I know we are not the only constituency affected. Will the Government act to introduce a similar reinsurance scheme to offer protections for households and businesses that are really concerned about the likely impact of future flooding?
I note the poor oppressed Government backbenchers are getting plenty of opportunities to speak today. As of tomorrow, they will have half the time to raise important issues like our response to storms, despite the Taoiseach's claims that he is standing up for their rights.
One group that we will not be able to talk about as much is the ambulance drivers of the National Ambulance Service, who are critical to responding to emergencies. Storm Éowyn and the Covid pandemic should be warnings about having the capacity to respond to emergencies where lives can be at risk. Before Storm Éowyn, I met representatives of the National Ambulance Service. These workers said that Ireland had about half the ambulance cover that Scotland, which has a similar population, had and that there were not enough paramedics, so even if ambulances got there in time, they did not have the paramedics to deal with incidents. There are also threats to the helicopter emergency medical service arising from a lack of staffing and to the emerging threat team due to a lack of funding and staffing being provided by the Government. Will the Taoiseach engage with the representatives of the National Ambulance Service and their unions? This service provides the emergency services. Will he ensure it has the proper funding, staffing, infrastructure and cover to save lives when we have emergencies?
One of the things that Storm Éowyn exposed was the lack of resilience in our monocultural forestry model. Unfortunately, this is set to get worse due to Coillte's recent decision to silently scrap Coillte Nature, its not-for-profit wing that is supposed to be dedicated to the restoration, regeneration and rehabilitation of nature across Ireland. In Orwellian fashion, Coillte claims that scrapping Coillte Nature will allow it to reach its climate and biodiversity targets. Is this to be done through the Nature Trust, which sells woodland credits to companies in return for investment in planting? Coillte tries to inspire confidence by claiming that this is not a carbon offsetting programme but Bank of Ireland, which developed the Nature Trust woodland credit scheme, describes it as "a carbon offsetting social enterprise". It is clear where the Minister for Sitka spruce, Michael Healy-Rae's emphasis is. Blatant greenwashing and forestry for profit is not going to avert the climate and biodiversity catastrophes that we face. Will the Taoiseach outline how this came about and will he reverse track on the current forestry-for-profit model that is turning counties like Leitrim into biodiversity dead zones?
Are we eating into the time for the next questions?
We are.
It is less exposure for the Taoiseach.
Deputies have asked a lot of questions. I welcome them all. To reply to Deputy Dolan on the review and the response, there will be a review. At the most recent meeting of the Government task force on emergency planning on 11 March, it was agreed that a review of the response to Storm Éowyn would be submitted to Government by the summer. That will be led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and will identify recommendations regarding the response at the national and local levels, reducing severe weather impacts on critical infrastructure and essential services, assisting communities and individuals severely affected by emergencies, key policy issues and cross-cutting responsibilities.
I will make a point in terms of the role of NECG in particular. Storm Éowyn was named by the UK Met Office on Tuesday, 21 January. It was the fifth named storm of the 2024-25 windstorm season. It was set to track to the north west of Ireland, producing strong south-easterly winds that would then veer west to south-westerly and intensify through the morning of Friday, 24 January. NECG met well in advance of the storm.
I will make one overall point to everybody: do not underestimate the importance of the warning. That red warning saved a lot of lives. Of that, there is no doubt. Unfortunately, one person lost his life. This has been examined. I had meetings with everybody after the storm. There is an issue with transitioning too quickly from a red to an orange warning. An orange warning enables people to move about the place but the damage during the red period can impact or manifest itself during the orange period. People may be returning to work when a tree comes down, for example. We have to examine that again. We also have to re-examine warnings and directions to schools. I have ordered a full and comprehensive review of all of this.
Deputies Scanlon and Martin Daly and others talked about communications networks. There is an onus on the companies to do better in that regard.
Deputy Brendan Smith spoke about the need for tree corridors. That has been the most frustrating discussion I have had so far. The Minister for agriculture and I met the Department of agriculture and others. We need to improve the resilience of the grid. That means proper tree corridors. We need to engage with Coillte, private farm owners, private forestry owners, the ESB and EirGrid. Once and for all, we need a comprehensive programme to protect the grid from falling trees. It seems elementary. The issue is the lack of a single focus. Different people all say it is somebody else's problem. I am keeping a focus on this. I want to make sure that progress is made before the next winter with regard to the necessity for tree corridors.
One interesting positive outcome of the storm, if one can even say that, is the degree to which communities rallied. There is very strong community resilience in Ireland. We now need to institutionalise that a bit more. By that, I mean that we need to resource communities. Deputy Martin Daly referenced my visit to Ballaghaderreen. There was a tremendous community focal point there. There was tremendous co-ordination and all of the various schemes were used, from the rural social scheme to the solidarity grant payment scheme. The rural social scheme was used to purchase vans to get food to people living in remote areas. GAA clubs, soccer clubs, rugby clubs and so on need to be provided with generators. This needs to be done by way of a programme, as they cannot be provided to everybody but they can be provided where there are identifiable focal points in a given community. Some did not have generators. If, by the grace of God, such a focal point got power back quickly, it could then make the facility available to the public. We need to develop a support scheme, probably through the Department of Rural and Community Development, that enables us to strategically put in place essential provisions for communities, enabling there to be focal hubs to which people could come to shower, to charge phones, to contact people and so on. I am very keen to see that developed.
The Defence Forces are brought in by the civil authority. They can only come in if they are asked by the local authorities. Local authorities lead on the ground. Under the national emergency plan and planning structure, every county has to have an emergency plan formulated and published. We tend to get different responses from different local authorities. We have to work to make that more uniform in the future.
The ambulance network is an ongoing issue and not just in the context of the storm. I will talk to the Minister for Health in that respect. I was at the recent launch of the helicopter emergency service in the south. Significant progress has been made. I am aware there are staffing issues but I hope negotiations can resolve that.
We have moved from a monocultural form of forestry.
We have not.
More recent plans are much more towards broadleaf trees and a proper mixture. We need commercial forestry as well. Deputy Murphy called it for-profit forestry. We need timber. Timber-frame housing is more climate friendly than cement. We need a better balance. We cannot just ridicule forestry for profit. We need a commercial forestry sector. We also need greater biodiversity and varied plantations of trees. I am very keen on that. A comprehensive scheme was announced last year and significant grants are available to farmers in particular. The traditional main commodities are dairy, beef and the rest. It is not as easy to move people over to forestry but that work will continue. I have exhausted as much as I can.
The Taoiseach did not answer the question.
National Security
Seán Ó Fearghaíl
Question:14. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the co-ordination role of his Department in national security; and when the new national security committee will be established. [4525/25]
Malcolm Byrne
Question:15. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the co-ordination role of his Department in national security; and when the new national security committee will be established. [4535/25]
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:16. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the coordination role of his Department in national security. [12374/25]
Paul Murphy
Question:17. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the coordination role of his Department in national security. [12377/25]
Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:18. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach the way he plans to increase the co-ordination role of his Department in relation to national security; and when the new national security committee will be established. [13485/25]
Ruth Coppinger
Question:19. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the co-ordination role of his Department in national security; and when the new national security committee will be established. [13704/25]
Martin Daly
Question:20. Deputy Martin Daly asked the Taoiseach the way he plans to increase the co-ordination role of his Department in national security; and when the new national security committee will be established. [13730/25]
Shane Moynihan
Question:21. Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Taoiseach the way he plans to increase the co-ordination role of his Department in national security; and when the new national security committee will be established. [13731/25]
Ivana Bacik
Question:22. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the coordination role of his Department in national security. [13743/25]
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:23. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the co-ordination role of his Department in national security; and when the new national security committee will be established. [13752/25]
Rose Conway-Walsh
Question:24. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach how he intends to increase the coordination role of his Department in national security. [13819/25]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 to 24, inclusive, together.
The programme for Government, Securing Ireland's Future, sets out a number of commitments relating to our national security and defence. The programme acknowledges that we live in a time of geopolitical upheaval and challenges to democracy and the international rules-based order with threats and challenges arising from a dynamic global geopolitical landscape. In this context, the Government will implement a number of measures relating to defence, justice and cybersecurity and improved co-ordination of national security.
I recently approved the establishment of a ministerial national security council, which will comprise the Taoiseach as chair, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Defence and Justice. The council will review strategic national security developments, review progress with delivery of the Government's national security commitments and measures and consider reports on the security situation and security threat levels and any other matters of importance to our national security. The council will met regulatory. Its meetings will be attended by the Secretaries General of the relevant Departments, the Commissioner for An Garda Síochána, the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, the director of the National Cyber Security Centre and the chiefs of staff of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
The current national security committee of officials will remain in place and report to the ministerial national security council for each of its meetings. In addition to its current responsibilities, the national security committee will steer and oversee progress with the delivery of the Government's strategic national security commitment and will report on progress to the ministerial national security council. To support the work of the council and the committee, a new national security secretariat will be established in my Department, which will provide reporting from meetings of the national security committee and the ministerial national security council. The new secretariat will also convene a number of new working groups of the national security committee to bring focused attention to bear on the delivery of actions in the primary areas of national security concern and to identify other matters requiring consideration by the ministerial national security council. The administrative arrangements to give effect to these commitments are currently being carried out.
I welcome the establishment of both the Cabinet security committee and the national security council and the Taoiseach's strong commitment and that in the programme for Government to take seriously the defence and security of the State, something that is very important to this Oireachtas, particularly in light of modern global geopolitical challenges. This is not just about boots on the ground anymore but about cyber threats the State will face and hybrid warfare. I hope the Taoiseach will give us assurances that he will continue to adequately resource the National Cyber Security Centre. We will face a lot more cyber threats. There should be learnings from the experience with the HSE. Four states are responsible for approximately 40% of cyberattacks and the spread of misinformation and disinformation - Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
Under national security, I raise critical infrastructure in our maritime area. Some 16 transatlantic cables run through Irish waters, carrying 95% of traffic between Europe and North America, which leaves us exposed. As we rightly invest heavily in offshore renewables, it will be critical that if we develop offshore turbines, the security of that sector is also protected. Representing the only constituency that has offshore turbines in our territorial waters, it is critically important that they are protected into the future. In the past two years, there have been a number of instances of Russian vessels operating in Irish waters. In April 2023, two Russian-flagged ships, the Umka and Bahktemir, were detected off the coast of Galway. In May 2023, four Russian naval vessels, including the Admiral Grigorovich, a warship armed with cruise missiles, were located in Irish waters. In November 2024, the Yantar, a spy ship, was observed accompanying the Admiral Golovko. There had to be inspections of some of the pipelines in our waters after that visit. In January 2024, our Air Corps had to be deployed to monitor Russian shadow fleet vessels. Even on 20 March this year, it was reported that Russian-linked ships were seen dropping anchor near some of the undersea cables. I ask the Taoiseach to give us an assurance that the security of that critical undersea infrastructure and offshore renewables will feature as part of the national security committee's work.
I strongly advise people to read George Orwell's book 1984 in which the world is divided into three blocs and governments tell people to live in fear of the others all the time to justify increasing authoritarianism and more expenditure on arms and weapons while working people are kept down and denied the money that is going into weapons and arms, which should go into health, education and housing. That is what is going on - project fear. The Irish Government is trying to pull us into it. I wonder has this sort of hysteria and fearmongering now descended to the strip-searching of peaceful women protestors Dáil Éireann. The group Mothers Against Genocide was on a Mother's Day protest to show solidarity with women and children in Palestine and Lebanon who have been slaughtered over the past 18 months. They had a peaceful sit-down protest and were arrested, very violently in some cases. In some cases, it included Palestinian and Lebanese people who actually suffered the horrors of the past 18 months. Some were strip-searched. According to one description:
I was stripped completely naked and was asked to remove my underwear. When I questioned the necessity of this, I was told I would be forced violently if I did not comply and that they did not want any trouble. After removing my underwear, they looked inside my private areas and touched all my sensitive parts.
Disgraceful.
It is absolutely disgusting. These were peaceful women protestors on a Mother's Day protest. Does the Taoiseach condone that kind of treatment of people who were a threat to nobody? It is absolutely outrageous behaviour. Does the Taoiseach condemn that? Is that where we are heading? Is that the sort of society we are heading for? They were protesting about our continued complicity with the genocide because of US troops in Shannon Airport, Israeli war bombs being sold and the failure to impose sanction on Israel.
These mothers were protesting from Mother's Day. They were protesting in support of the Occupied Territories Bill, which the Taoiseach promised would be passed during the election. They were protesting to stop weapons going through Irish airspace, which continues and is increasing and which the Taoiseach has refused to do anything about. I hope he will support the arms embargo Bill coming up in the Seanad tomorrow.
They were protesting against complicity on the genocide and slaughter that is taking place in Gaza, and how were they treated? They were forcibly removed by the gardaí. Fourteen were arrested and then, like Deputy Boyd Barrett said, what is coming out about how they were treated in the Garda stations is absolutely horrific. I will quote the same person Deputy Boyd Barrett just did. She is a Palestinian woman. Deputy Boyd Barrett has spoken about how she was effectively forced to remove her underwear. Her private parts were touched and looked inside of, and she was subjected to a cavity search. In addition to that, her hijab was confiscated to check if it was allowed before being returned to her. She said, "After the procedures were completed, I was released with a warning that if I participated in any further events, I would be punished, and that this was my only chance." What sort of repressive State is this that is operating in such a way? This needs immediate condemnation from the Garda. We need to be assured that people have the right to protest without being treated in such a way.
Members of Mothers Against Genocide were protesting against the utterly despicable ongoing genocide. A number of serious allegations have been made. I ask that the Taoiseach look into this incredibly serious matter. Everybody believes this could have been dealt with better.
We all accept that in this State, like many others, there are huge issues with regard to hybrid and cyber threats, whether we are talking about the impact drug cartels are having, trade tariffs at this point in time and telecommunications. We need to make sure there is a capacity review into how we deal with this. We also know there has been underfunding of the Defence Forces for many years, which has led to a huge recruitment and retention issue. All this does need to be addressed but we also have a duty to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while wearing the uniform, sometimes, like Private Seán Rooney, while on United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, operations. Has the Taoiseach an update on the engagement with the UN on the request made by the Dublin coroner through the Government? The Tánaiste made contact with the UN recently in this regard but is the Government any further on with the information being provided to the coroner? This information has been promised to the family. I do realise that the family wish to be out when the next court sitting happens. We all need to see justice for Seán Rooney.
The national security of our country is being breached by increased requests for weapons flight exemptions. However, it seems that mothers are the biggest threat to security judging by the actions yesterday. I, too, want to put on the record the utterly outrageous treatment of mothers who gave up Mother's Day to peacefully hold a vigil. I was actually going to attend it myself. They had pictures of children who have been brutally killed in Gaza. They had what they call pillow babies, which are wrapped in swaddling clothes like a baby corpse.
Gardaí arrived at the gate at 5.30 a.m. Nobody needed to use Leinster House at that time by the way. They took the pictures. They kicked the pillow babies in one case, which people found very offensive and insensitive. They then proceeded to arrest the eight women who were having a peaceful sit-down protest. The Taoiseach heard from other TDs that some of those women were strip-searched, and one was subjected to a cavity search. These are deemed sexual violence actions by Amnesty International. Why did that happen?
I thank the Deputy.
Why did this happen at a very peaceful vigil, with displays marking a memorial, in effect, for the people who have been killed in Palestine? These women are nothing but peace-loving. I know many of them personally; one or two live in my constituency.
Thank you, Deputy.
If I could just say this, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle: why did the gardaí ask the women why they were supporting Hamas? Obviously, they are not supporting Hamas by objecting to a genocide. Why did the gardaí also ask: "What do you think would happen to you if you were outside the White House right now?" Is this an international policing memo that is being sent, emanating from the likes of Germany and the White House?
I thank the Deputy. I call Deputy Daly
Is this coming to Ireland as well?
Taoiseach-----
I would like the Taoiseach to object to the way those women were treated.
Deputy Coppinger-----
It was not necessary to do that.
I welcome the establishment of the national security council. It will give co-ordination, weight and urgency to our security requirements with increased risks because of the unstable international environment and the risk of hybrid cyberattacks and hybrid warfare. It is not as if we have not been attacked. The HSE was attacked a number of years ago, There are lots of private institutions and companies that are under-reported, so we are essentially at war with someone. We do not always know who those actors are but there is a suspicion that they are acting on behalf state actors. Our ability to secure our own air and territorial waters is also extremely important. Some people would have us be passive and supine and wait for something to happen to us. The tradition of neutrality for other neutral countries has been investment in their defence and security because that is the mature and responsible approach to take. We must do that. We cannot have this unspoken reliance on third-party states for our defence and security.
Like other colleagues, I welcome the adoption of the ministerial committee on national security. I am particularly keen that this would be up and running and meeting as soon as possible given the current debate about tariffs and trade wars demonstrates Ireland's strategic location from an economic point of view but now, also being on the western side of the European Union, very much from a military point of view, notwithstanding the prevalence of subsea cables and other vital infrastructure around our coasts.
My question relates to the whole-of-government approach that I hope the ministerial security committee will take. The establishment brief for the ministerial committee refers to energy security and economic resilience. It would be good to learn from the Taoiseach about how exactly it will be seen as a whole-of-government approach in terms of involvement of Departments that have responsibility for economic functions, such as the Department with responsibility for energy, for example, and so on because those pieces are key to the economic security and energy resilience at the core of maintaining our national security. It would be good to get an indication from the Taoiseach about how other Departments are feeding into that.
I certainly welcome the committee being established but we need to see the publication of the national security strategy. I have been raising this with the Taoiseach and his predecessors for some time. I also raised as long ago as December 2022 the need for briefings for Opposition leaders on national security matters. That was in the context of the HSE cyberattack, the presence of Russian ships in our economic zone and serious concerns about Russian spy assets in Ireland and activity of organised crime in Ireland. There is a serious lack of democratic oversight of national security, and we should be provided with briefings in opposition, as is standard in other countries, particularly if overseas actors are seeking to undermine our democratic system.
Finally, we have been seeking a response from the Taoiseach to a parliamentary question on the use of encrypted apps within his Department and other Departments. Are there guidelines in Departments on the use of apps like WhatsApp and Signal for the sharing of confidential information? Clearly, we have seen a real concern about that in the US. Can the Taoiseach say if he or, indeed, Government advisers use WhatsApp for co-ordinating their work?
I echo the comments from Deputies Bacik and Malcolm Byrne on election interference from state and non-state actors. I will comment briefly on alleged Russian interference in elections in Moldova and Romania as an example. We see every day on our Twitter feeds or on various social media platforms various types of misinformation and fake news. Obviously, that is most critically effective in and around election times in various countries, but what are we doing here and now to plan into the future for potential election interference from those state actors, in particular those referenced by Deputy Byrne?
I am also deeply concerned about what happened with Mothers Against Genocide protesting peacefully on Mother's Day. I want to give the Taoiseach the time to answer as to why the escalation of this peaceful protest took place. Very powerful advocates on behalf of women and children are being slaughtered in Palestine.
I thank all the Deputies who raised the issue. I will make the fundamental point that the establishment of the national security council is about creating a proper structure to ensure democratic accountability on national security matters, and proper co-ordination between all Departments and between An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces.
As Taoiseach, I will chair it, and also participating will be the Ministers for Justice and Foreign Affairs and Trade. The council will operate at a high level in terms of the national security threats that face the country.
Confidentiality is very important in terms of the conduct of national security threats and how we respond. In time, I would like to see some discussion with the Oireachtas in terms of an Oireachtas role, but it would have to be predicated on confidentiality in terms of our engagement with An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. We do not have a tradition of that in our political system. We must consider the nature of modern threats. It is not project fear, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said. Russia did invade Ukraine, by the way; that is just a fact. It is not project fear; it happened. That act alone has changed the entire mindset around Europe in respect of security, allied to the decision of the US to make it very clear that its role is changing in terms of being the ultimate security guarantor of the western hemisphere. Therefore, Europe has to seriously look at how exposed it is to any future aggression. Whether or not the Deputy and others like it, the reality is that there are EU member states that see the situation as existential. These are states that formerly experienced the brutality and repression of he Soviet empire. I am speaking of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. They do not want ever again to be under the rule of a jackboot regime that suppresses civil rights, civil expression and political expression, and where, if people speak out, they are put into a jail straight away. They do not want that.
It is not project fear. That is a bit too simplistic in terms of what is going on. In some respects, we are seeing a growth in autocracy across the world, with similar methodologies and similar approaches to international relations. We have to protect our own democratic structures, as Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan said, and the Electoral Commission is working on that. As Deputy Shane Moynihan said, we also must protect our economic infrastructure and our energy infrastructure. Modern methods of disruption mean warfare does not have to be waged conventionally. It can be done through cyber means to devastating effects, as we found out following the attack on our health service during the Covid-19 period. That was devastating.
On the maritime front, which was raised by Deputy Malcolm Byrne, the subsea cables and energy interconnectors are very important. The decision regarding a national gas reserve is a security decision - an energy security decision - whereby if anything happens to our interconnectors, we need backup to keep the Irish economy going and, basically, to keep the lights on in households and in industry. It is an expensive thing to have to do but we must do it. It would be irresponsible to take a chance in respect of that.
Regarding the Mothers Against Genocide protest, there is absolutely no issue with protests - none whatsoever. I am informed that there was engagement with a number of protestors who were blocking the entrance to Leinster House. Why does that have to happen? People can protest on the left-hand side, the right-hand side or across the road.
They said they were going to leave after one hour.
They do not have to protest at all. We had protests a year or two ago that were quite violent.
Do not compare the two.
I am not saying the Mothers Against Genocide protesters were doing that; they were not. However, everybody in this House railed against the Garda for not having operational procedures to ensure access to, and egress from, Leinster House.
(Interruptions).
These protestors were sitting down.
I did not interrupt the Deputies. Protestors do not have to block the gates of Leinster House.
They said they would leave after one hour.
What happened then was the Garda gave a direction under the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act. That is what the Garda formally did. There was no physical engagement; gardaí just gave a direction. I am informed that the individuals were given a period of time to adhere to the direction. That direction was not complied with and 11 people were then arrested for offences contrary to section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act. All 11 of them have received adult cautions. Additionally, three people were arrested for alleged offences under section 6, dealing with threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour in a public place, section 9, wilful obstruction, and section 19, assault or obstruction of a peace officer. I will follow up with the Minister for Justice in terms of the assertions and allegations that have been made today in the House. I do not have any background to that but I will follow up on it because I do not understand the necessity for any strip-searching or whatever.
The Deputies again used that phrase, which they use with abandon, where they accuse people of complicity in genocide. That is a great old slogan but it is a horrible assertion.
Israeli war bonds. That is complicity. Absolutely it is.
It is a horrible assertion. It is a demonstrably false assertion and a misreading that is absolutely wrong. It should not be made.
Israeli war bonds.
Munitions are being brought through our airspace.
Deputies complain from time to time about assertions made about them and others. That assertion is very fundamentally wrong. It speaks to a kind of philosophy and mindset that is about how they can blame the Government or Irish parliamentarians for what is going on in Gaza and not the Israeli Government.
Will the Taoiseach go back to the actual protest he was asked about?
Those Deputies' approach always seems to be, "Let us blame the Irish Government", rather than putting the blame where the fault lies. They are attempting to drive a wedge between the Irish people and the Irish public representatives who are not of their persuasion.
What about the Mother's Day protestors who were strip-searched?
If the Taoiseach had kept his election promises, he would not be asked these questions.