Defence Matters: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25 ============================================================ Seán Kyne (FG), Cultural and Educational Panel The Minister is very welcome to the Seanad. I thank her for taking time out to update us on defence matters. I know she has a lot of responsibilities in her other Department as well. I acknowledge her recent visit to Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa in Renmore, County Galway, where she awarded the distinguished service medals to the chaplain, Fr. Paul Murphy, Private Ciara Shanahan, Corporal Daniel Padden and Private Dylan Geraghty. It was great to see the ceremony and the excitement, particularly among family members of those who acted so heroically that day. Of course, Fr. Murphy was the victim of an attack and I commend him on the graciousness of his forgiveness. The Minister also opened the new officer accommodation unit in Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa. It was great to see investment in such high-quality accommodation, recreation rooms and so on. I am a member of the Oireachtas committee on defence and national security and we visited Gormanston in County Meath recently. I am aware that the Minister has also visited Gormanston since taking up her role as Minister for Defence. Again, the level of investment going on there is good to see and that is reflected not just in the figures she has given but in the work on the ground and the changes being made to the environment for new recruits. I welcome the respect that it shows to the profession, which is so important for the security of the State. The Minister recently attended the launch of a document on defence by Young Fine Gael, which sets out a vision of reform that redefines Ireland's defence position, protects its role in peacekeeping and strengthens its humanitarian role in the world. It mentions the importance of cybersecurity and national security intelligence, which must be treated as equal, to land, sea and air defence. The document calls for increased budgets to acquire additional military capabilities, a national recruitment drive and improvements in pay and training. It contains proposals to create a national cybersecurity defence command within the Defence Forces and a national security council under the chairpersonship of An Taoiseach to bring a whole-of-government approach to this area. It also calls for reforms at UN level to make peacekeeping missions more effective and flexible and for the removal of the triple lock to allow Ireland to make an even greater contribution to peacekeeping. It contains proposals for an urgent upgrade to radar and sonar systems to protect the 75% of European cables that pass through Irish waters while maintaining Ireland's neutrality. It proposes that we engage in enhanced partnerships with friendly nations, which will strengthen Ireland's resilience while preserving our independence and enhancing our humanitarian role and values. The Minister attended the launch of that document and has engaged with Young Fine Gael on it. Most people are in agreement that we need a new era for defence. We have seen in the plans that have been published and the strategies we are publishing a determination to take this country's defence capabilities much more seriously than we have done in the past. We have to be able to stand on our own two feet. That will not happen today or tomorrow but we have to move in that direction. We want to be able to be proud to go to a European Council meeting with everybody else and show that we have increased our spending and investment and that we can stand on our own two feet in relation to the security of our island and the infrastructure that is so critical for the European Union. The Minister has laid out her vision and that of the Department and the Government on this and that is hugely important. That ambition is there and the increase in spending is clear. The Minister has mentioned the need to strengthen Ireland's defence by increasing investment in enhanced capability by 2028. We have seen increased investment under the national development plan, which, again, is very welcome. I note the announcement in recent days that Ireland is to buy hundreds of new armoured vehicles and artillery pieces from France, which will significantly expand the capability of the Army to conduct on-island defence. The planned deal, which is expected to be worth more than €600 million, will involve the biggest investment in army equipment in the history of the State as part of a military modernisation programme. It also involves acquiring primary radar and systems to monitor Irish airspace. All of that is very necessary and very welcome. It is good to see that level of investment on the ground. The Minister mentioned the general scheme of the defence (amendment) Bill and the triple lock. The Oireachtas committee, of which I am a member, had a number of weeks of engagement on that Bill. I have no doubt the Minister has read, familiarised herself with and noted the recommendations from the joint committee on defence and national security. I will now point to a number of them. The committee recommends that Ireland continue to take a lead role in UN reform and the use of the Uniting for Peace resolution mechanism at the UN General Assembly. This represents an attitude of "if we could, we would". We would all like to be able to reform the United Nations. Ireland has engaged in that and will continue to do so, but it requires agreement. It is a worthy objective because the UN Security Council is not fit for purpose and that is why the triple lock, as the Minister stated, is not deemed to be suitable to continue with. There has been discussion at the joint committee of whether there could be a role for the General Assembly in the context of resolutions. I know such resolutions are non-binding but there may be some way around that. Any proposals to send troops on a mission would have to comply with international law and the UN Charter but we need something firmer in relation to resolutions and the role of the General Assembly. That would certainly be welcome as a safeguard. We have set out under head 6, subhead 3 the circumstances and conditions in which Defence Forces personnel might be deployed. The committee also recommends that proposals to increase the number of Defence Forces personnel allowed to be dispatched or deployed without Dáil oversight under the provisions of head 6 be revised to include, at a minimum, oversight provisions by the joint committee on defence and national security and the joint committee on foreign affairs and trade. The joint committee also recommends that the proposal to increase the number of Defence Forces personnel allowed to be dispatched or deployed be amended to include a specific requirement to provide information to the joint committee on defence and national security on any decision taken around those provisions and that the legislation should specify a time limit for the furnishing of such information. Those are just some of the recommendations of the committee. We had a good debate. Like any pre-legislative scrutiny process, we had good scrutiny and engagement on this whole area and put forward a number of suggestions. On recruitment, I acknowledge that the number of recruits in the Naval Service is increasing and I welcome the maritime security strategy. I apologise for not getting to the launch of that strategy earlier today. We have vast sections of the ocean and it is important that they be defended. We must increase the spend and the capabilities to defend not just our waters but also the infrastructure therein. That is being taken seriously and we must have continued investment in recruits and ships that are capable of defence and fit for purpose. I welcome all of that, which was outlined by the Minister. I also welcome the investment in radar. Again, it is important to know what is out there, in terms of who is using our airspace, and as Senator Craughwell has quite rightly mentioned on numerous occasions, it is important to know what we are going to do about it if we find out that people are using our airspace. In terms of relationships, the use of the French navy and air force has been mentioned in the context of our European Presidency. Are those sorts of partnerships something that we will be looking to in the medium term? --- 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/seanad/2026-02-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-25