White Paper on Defence

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 April 2018

Tuesday, 17 April 2018

Ceisteanna (137)

Jack Chambers

Ceist:

137. Deputy Jack Chambers asked the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the projects engaged by the defence enterprise committee; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15957/18]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister of State at the Department of Defence

The Government approved arrangements in July 2011, whereby Enterprise Ireland would support the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces capability development through engagement with Irish-based enterprise and research institutes on the use and application of innovative civilian technologies in the military sphere. The White Paper on Defence confirms this arrangement, stating the Defence Forces will make available resources and expertise, including advice and information, to Enterprise Ireland supported companies and research institutes.  In return the Defence Forces are exposed to new technologies and research that could inform the direction and development of  their military capabilities.

The Defence Enterprise Committee, comprising of personnel from the Department of Defence, Enterprise Ireland and the Defence Forces, oversee this arrangement.  Projects proposed by institutes and companies, where they are seeking to partner with, or involve, Defence Forces participation are submitted to the Defence Enterprise Committee for consideration. All capabilities to be researched are vetted and agreed at the highest level in the Defence Organisation to ensure compatibility with the roles assigned to the Defence Forces by the Government.

The Defence Forces assistance to industry and research institutions is by way of providing evaluation of technology research and innovation, provision of information on military requirements and the Defence Forces considered views on trends in specific capability development requirements. Capabilities which have been and are being researched by the Defence Forces in cooperation with research companies and institutions include Maritime Surveillance; Energy Conservation; Counter Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) research, including CBRN Protection; overseas deployment training; and Improvised Explosives Devices (IED) detection and destruction.  Such capabilities may be used at home and also abroad on crisis management missions and operations including humanitarian and peace-keeping missions.

A total of nine research, training and innovation projects (including three Horizon 2020 projects) involving Irish indigenous companies are currently being supported by the Defence Forces under this initiative, details of which are attached in Annex 1.

	Project Title	Research Partner(s)	Project Description
1	AEOLAS	HALPIN, EI, SEAI, NIMBUS	Kite Technology - The potential for fitting sensors in a Skysail type kite.
2	Marine Insitute	Marine Institute	Use of Maritime Patrol Aircraft in the collection of Marine based research.
3	Tyco	Tyco	Tyco's Advanced R&D element is based at Cork. Tyco has partnered with the NS to explore maritime opportunities. The NS has conducted a wokshop with Tyco's R&D element to sense and explore opportunities. NS ships possess Tyco firefighting systems.
4	SeaSearch	CIT, ESA	Detecting and tracking of small vessels that are not equipped or not using AIS
5	Wireless Sensor Technology	CIT	This involves the use of wireless sensor technology in noisy and metallic environments such as ships.
6	DELL/EMC	DELL/EMC	This collaboration focuses on vibration monitoring onboard small boats in varying sea conditions.
7	CAMELOT (Horizon 2020)	TEKEVER ASDS (Lead), BAE Systems (Operations) Limited (UK), Thales Research & Technology, ViaSat Antenna Systems, DCNS SA (France), Societe D’Ingenierie de Rechercheset D’Etudes en Hydrodynamique Navale, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés SAS, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Exodus Anonymos Etaireia Pliroforikis, NATO Science and Technology Organisation, Fundação da Daculdade de Cincias da Universidade de Lisboa, National Maritime College of Ireland, Romanian Border Police, Portuguese Navy, Portuguese National Guard, and Centre for Security Studies	The H2020 project CAMELOT will involve carrying out a number of activities to prototype, test and demonstrate different advanced command and control service modules for multiple platform systems. The objective is to validate the technical and economic viability of the modules. In addition a final demonstration involving a great number of the modules is envisaged, involving end users and relevant stakeholders.
8	Gaming for Peace (GAP) (Horizon 2020)	TCD, PSNI, University of Ulster, Laurea University, Finland, Polish DF Academy, Portuguese National Guard	The H2020 project GAP designs a multiple player online role playing game which simulates scenarios from CPPB missions. The GAP project launches an iterative process of curriculum development and refinement through end users (military, police and civilian personnel) evaluating the game and embedded base curriculum by playing the game and in doing so, bringing their own experiences to the game, thus further developing the curriculum of CPPB relevant soft skills.
9	ROCSAFE (Horizon 2020)	NUIG, Inov Inesc inovacao, Ayuntamiento De Valencia, HSE, Aeorum Espana S.L., Scorpion Networks Ltd, Consorzio Creo, UCC, reamda Ltd, Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Ibatech Technologia SL, Microfluidic Chipshop GMBH	The overall goal of the H2020 project ROCSAFE is to fundamentally change how CBRNe events are assessed, in order to ensure the safety of crime scene investigators by reducing the need for them to enter high-risk scenes when they have to determine the nature of threats and gather forensics.

Question No. 138 answered with Question No. 127.