As Minister for Defence, I commend the courage and professionalism of the Defence Forces personnel involved in this challenging and successful Joint Task Force operation, together with colleagues from Customs and An Garda Síochána.
Overall responsibility for the prevention of drug trafficking rests primarily with the Customs Service of the Revenue Commissioners, while responsibility for the prevention of crime rests primarily with An Garda Síochána. The Joint Task Force on Drug Interdiction was established as a Government measure to improve law enforcement in relation to drugs and consists of members of An Garda Síochána, the Revenue Customs Service and the Naval Service. It has proven to be a very successful model for disrupting the smuggling of drugs on the high seas into Ireland and has resulted in a number of significant and high profile drugs seizures. The White Paper on Defence (2015) reaffirms the security role carried out by the Defence Forces in support of this important work.
My priority as Minister for Defence is to ensure that the operational capability of the Defence Forces is maintained to the greatest extent possible to enable the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service to carry out their roles as assigned by Government.
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 including drug interdiction, search and rescue, and maritime defence and security operations (MDSO).
The Naval Operations Command Centre located at Naval Base in Haulbowline is staffed twenty four hours a day seven days a week by qualified Naval Service personnel who carry out monitoring and surveillance of all vessels equipped with a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) that are operating in and adjacent to the Irish EEZ.
Naval Service surveillance 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 surveillance and communication equipment. The programme for the supply of two C295 Maritime Patrol Aircraft is nearing completion with the arrival of the first aircraft in June this year. The second C295 Maritime Patrol Aircraft is expected to arrive into Baldonnel later this month. These aircraft will feature updated and upgraded equipment to ensure that the Air Corps can continue to deliver the required capability required of an island country. In addition, the Air Corps fleet of four Pilatus PC-12 aircraft play a key role in the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) area providing a substantially increased capability with their state of the art surveillance technology.
I am committed to ensuring that the Defence Forces continue to be equipped and trained to best international standards to carry out the roles assigned to them by Government.
