Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 September 2023
117. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the extent to which his office is aware of and concerned with the recent statement from the former President of the Russian Federation effectively legitimising the targeting of vital subterranean and submarine infrastructure; and if he has had, or proposes to have, discussions at international level to investigate the possibility of an international response. [29516/23]
View answer119. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he intends to raise the recent statement by the former President of the Russian Federation in respect of vital subterranean and submarine infrastructure at the next European Council meeting. [29517/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 117 and 119 together.
Ireland has been at the forefront of efforts to support Ukraine and oppose Russia’s illegal invasion and assault on international law. We have repeatedly called on Russia to end its war of choice, to comply with its obligations under international law, and to withdraw all forces unconditionally from the internationally recognised territory of Ukraine.
In the context of Russia’s aggression and a deteriorating security environment, protection of critical subsea infrastructure is an increasingly important issue across Europe. The issue has received particular attention following the attacks on Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022.
The European Council has strongly condemned the acts of sabotage against critical infrastructure and indicated that the EU will meet any deliberate disruption of critical infrastructure or other hybrid actions with a united and determined response.
Against this backdrop, there are currently a number of EU initiatives in development focused on the protection of critical offshore infrastructure, including a new Critical Seabed Infrastructure Protection (CSIP) project within the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) framework, in which Ireland holds observer status. This aims at increasing the EU’s operational efficiency in the protection of such infrastructure. Separately, NATO has established a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Coordination Cell (CUIC) which may to be open to non-NATO members, such as Ireland, as well as industry, and civilian stakeholders. Ireland’s participation is under active consideration.
Also of note is that the Department of Defence is focused on transposing the Critical Entities Resilience Directive into national law. This European directive aims to reduce the vulnerabilities and increase the physical resilience of entities, including undersea infrastructure, which provide essential services to the public. This is in order to ensure these critical entities can prevent, protect against, respond to, cope with and recover from a wide variety of threats including hybrid attacks, natural disasters, terrorist threats and public health emergencies. Officials from that Department also represent Ireland on the new European-level Critical Entities Resilience Group, which provides a forum for exchanging information and best practices with other EU Member States and the European Commission to ensure the resilience of critical entities.
In the meantime, while this transposition process is underway, the Department of Defence is coordinating stress tests of Ireland’s energy sector in line with the Council of the EU recommendation 2023/C 20/01 on a union wide coordinated approach to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure. These stress tests will assess the resilience of critical infrastructure against antagonistic man-made threats.
