Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I fully agree. When we talk about threats, we talk about them perhaps in a way as though they are in the future. We have already been subject to these types of changing hybrid threats. It was just five years ago when the HSE had a cyber-attack that impacted access to significant amounts of information and the functioning of the HSE and our social protection system. We have seen it already and we know it is there. This is why it is really important, whether in our Defence Forces or An Garda Síochána, that we have the enhanced capacity and personnel to be able to respond to them. We have mentioned maritime security and the fact we have thousands of cables coming across the Atlantic, through and around our maritime domain and across to Europe. We have a maritime domain seven times the size of our island. This is why in the coming weeks I will publish a new maritime security strategy. It is essential that we are able to identify what threats are happening in our seas.
It is essential that we can prioritise protecting the really important cables for all that they bring, not just data and information, but the gas pipes and everything else. It is also essential, in doing that, we work closely with more of our partners and that is where we need to focus. It does not impact our neutrality. It does not change what we are doing at home, but engaging more and having greater and enhanced co-operation with countries, whether on maritime security or on cybersecurity, is the space we need to be in. I am really ambitious that we do more in that space overall.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17