Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2023-10-03
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I want to pay tribute to all involved in the joint task force involving the Defence Forces, the Garda and the Revenue, in particular. It also involved the deployment of: the LÉ William Butler Yeats ; two AgustaWestland AW139 Army helicopters, one of which was in medical service but they are Army helicopters; one Casa CN 235 fixed wing aircraft; one Pilatus PC12 fixed wing aircraft; and a team from the Army Ranger Wing, ARW. That was the full complement of the entire Defence Forces. It was not that they suddenly discovered it. This was a result of working with agencies internationally and of working with the Garda, and with the Defence Forces monitoring the operation. Our forces would have been alerted and the joint task force worked well together. We have provided significant resources, including two new aircraft, Airbus C295s, one of which was not ready as it has just been purchased and one more is coming. Two new ships have been provided to the Naval Service. There is unprecedented investment in infrastructure in the barracks and so on.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-10-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:13+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-10-03