Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 June 2023
84. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence the actions proposed to augment the ability of the Defence Forces here to protect vital subterranean and submarine infrastructure in light of recent global threats in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29512/23]
View answerAs Minister for Defence, I chair the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning (GTF) supported by the Office of Emergency Planning (OEP) in my Department. A subgroup of the GTF was assigned responsibility to develop guidance on critical infrastructure resilience in 2017. The subgroup produced the first guideline document on critical infrastructure resilience in February 2019. This document was subsequently revised and updated in July 2021.
While the primary responsibility for safeguarding critical infrastructure rests with its owner or operator, the guideline document provides the methodology for operators of essential services to follow to enhance their resilience. It also outlines that it is the responsibility of each government department to foster links and work closely with the semi-state and private sector operators of critical infrastructure, in their respective policy areas, to enhance the protection of critical infrastructure from a wide variety of threats.
In advance of the enactment of the new EU Critical Entities Resilience Directive, the Department of Defence is working with the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to stress test critical infrastructure in the energy sector in Ireland. These stress tests will be completed before the end of 2023.
Department of Defence officials 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 infrastructure. While the Defence Forces have limited sub-sea capabilities, enhanced maritime patrolling of the Irish Sea in the vicinity of priority offshore infrastructure is taking place by a mixture of air and naval platforms.
In relation to the future development of subsea capabilities, the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces considered that a step up to Level of Ambition 2 (LOA2) should seek to deliver enhancement of sub-surface capabilities to monitor sub-sea cables. The report states that to achieve this would mean the Naval fleet should have enhanced air, surface and sub-surface search capabilities, with the latter allowing the Naval Service to monitor activity in the vicinity of sub-sea cables. In order to achieve these desired capability effects associated with a move to LOA2, specific recommendations made by the Commission were accepted in principle by Government when it published its High Level Action Plan for the Commission's report.
A further early action identified in the High Level Action Plan is the commencement of the Strategic Defence Review. This review will examine defence policy across all domains and inform future capability requirements and enable a broader debate on the State’s overall defence policy. Department officials are currently working with their Military counterparts with a view to progressing this action. The first stage of this review will be a security environment analysis to be conducted by an interdepartmental working group which has been established for the purposes of the review.
