National Security Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16 ============================================================ Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East I am responding to different questions. First, we all know there were drones. For anybody suggesting otherwise, we know that was the case. I repeat that at no stage did they compromise the security operation that was in place for President Zelenskyy's visit. I will say that we are taking this matter extremely seriously. That is why there is a review under way. That is why the Garda is conducting a review working with the Defence Forces. Of course, if lessons need to be learned about how different information was communicated and whether or not appropriate steps were taken. My understanding is that all appropriate steps were taken and all proper controls were followed. However, we need to make sure we can learn from any type of scenario like this because we are all aware that these types of incidents are not once-off. We are seeing them happen more regularly and that is why we are taking them seriously. It is also important to stress that this was a successful visit. We did not close down airspace. There was not any issue in terms of the plane or visit itself. That in itself shows that we have the radar capacity to identify them but we know we need to enhance our capability. That is exactly why we are investing in the way we are now. We have capacity already but we know there are gaps and we need to enhance it. When António Costa visited Ireland last week, he was asked the question, "Do you have confidence in Ireland's capacity and capabilities?" and his very clear answer was "Yes". It is important for all of us to be confident in the capacity of our Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána to defend this country and to make sure we have a successful Presidency. I certainly have confidence but again, there is more we need to do. Regarding the relationship between An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces, and I have spoken to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces many times, including as recently as this afternoon, the Chief of Staff is in constant engagement with Garda Commissioner, Justin Kelly. They are in constant engagement and that will continue, if not increase, in the run-up to the Presidency to make sure in our security operations, which will be led by An Garda Síochána, they are working closely together and that other agency, whether it is air navigation or anybody else on the ground, that need to be involved in part of the overall security operation is involved in that too. As regards our counter-drone technology, I hope to have a contract signed by the end of the year, which will mean we will have the technology bought before the first half of next year, that is, by May or June. In parallel with this, training will take place within the Defence Forces to make sure we have members that are able to use it. Of course, the Presidency will start in the beginning of July and I appreciate timelines may have changed but I am saying very clearly I will be signing a contract before the end of the year. We will have this capacity before the second half of next year and we will have it in place and operational before the Presidency starts. In terms of the overall Presidency, we will have the new security council, which has already met in this new government format and will be meeting soon. This is a structure that will be in place and will be meeting regularly throughout the Presidency. It is attended by members from An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces and the relevant Ministers and Members. This is a space separate to the work ongoing between the Garda and the Defence Forces to make sure the preparations, plans and security measures that need to be put in place are in place and are operational for next year. --- 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/2025-12-16/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-16