National Security
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

As I outlined in an earlier response, a widely reported incident occurred on Monday, 1 December, regarding drones operating in the vicinity of a Naval Service vessel in the Irish Sea. Notwithstanding some suggestions, at no stage was the flight of President Zelenskyy compromised and the security operation led by An Garda Síochána was successfully deployed through multiple means, ultimately leading to a safe and successful visit to Ireland by President Zelenskyy. It was an opportunity for us to restate our absolute support and commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of a brutal and illegal invasion by Russia. As previously mentioned, I ask Deputies to reflect on the ongoing speculation in respect of this incident. It is important that we show confidence in the capacity and ability of the Garda and the Defence Forces, both of which were involved in that hugely successful operation, to do their jobs effectively.
I have been fully briefed, in my capacity as Minister for Defence and as part of the national security committee, on the initial findings and I am reassured that both the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána have examined and are examining this matter extensively. With any incident of this kind, we have to review what happened and how the operation was put in place, and consider whether something could have been done differently and whether something needs to be changed. That work is ongoing.
One of my key priorities as Minister is to ensure that Defence Forces capabilities are maintained, developed and enhanced so that the organisation can meet all Government-assigned roles, including those that may arise as a result of drone incursions. Certainly this is something we are seeing far more of right across Europe. As I mentioned earlier, in other countries we have seen hundreds of millions of euro in losses because of closed air space due to issues around airports. In the most part, that is probably part of the intention behind some of this activity. It is really important that we do everything we can to try to prevent these types of incursions.
The Office of Emergency Planning in my Department conducts the national risk assessment on a rolling three-year cycle, as part of our reporting commitments under Decision 1313/2013/EU. In the latest national risk assessment, the disruptive use of drones was identified for the first time as one of the State’s 22 key risks. This is certainly something we are taking with the utmost seriousness.

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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