Ports Policy
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I compliment Senator Comyn on the passion and commitment she showed to Drogheda and its environs. She was clearly not reading from a script but speaking from the heart. She gave a strong defence of the strengths of Drogheda and how the town can play a pivotal part in Ireland's security in the future. Well done on that. It is great to see the Senator show such passion and commitment to her community.
I am responding on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Helen McEntee, who unfortunately cannot be here. She has asked me to convey her apologies to the Senator and the House. I thank the Senator for raising the issue.
The Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces calls for the development of an east coast base for the Naval Service. Reflecting this, the programme for Government has also recognised the need for an east coast base. Such a base would support the operations of the Naval Service and also raise the profile of the service along the eastern seaboard, with a potential beneficial impact on recruitment. In addition, the Minister for Defence recently published Ireland's first national maritime security strategy. The strategy focuses on risks and threats to Ireland's national security and defence through a new whole-of-government approach. It has an accompanying action plan to ensure delivery of this new whole-of-government approach to protecting the security of our maritime domain.
As part of this action plan, options will be explored to expand the State's existing naval infrastructure, including exploring the potential for a forward operating base on the east coast. The action plan sets out a timeline of 2030 for a decision relating to the east coast forward operational base concept. Work will commence on developing options in the near future. In particular, the issue of the east coast base has been discussed in the context of the inshore patrol vessels, IPVs, LÉ Aoibhinn and LÉ Gobnait . These IPVs were acquired with a particular focus on east coast operations. They are well-suited to key missions like the protection of critical infrastructure, with the LÉ Aoibhinn becoming operational in 2024. The Tánaiste then gave approval to leasing the berth in Dún Laoghaire to support east coast operations in the short term, for a period of up to five years.
With this in mind, the Department has recently signed a licence with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the owner of the harbour in Dún Laoghaire, regarding exclusive use of the berth by the Naval Service. Relevant works on the site will commence shortly to support Naval Service operations. The operations of this temporary facility will provide an opportunity to develop proof of concept for any future east coast base and will help identify precise requirements for such a base.
Additionally, a Naval Service regeneration plan is due to be submitted shortly for the consideration of the Minister for Defence. The regeneration plan has been devised on foot of detailed workshops held between senior military officers, led by the Chief of Staff, and senior officials in the Department of Defence. The issue of additional naval bases, on the east coast or elsewhere, will be considered in the context of that awaited plan and recommendations arising from same. I note that as a measure of the Government's commitment to investing in the Naval Service, to date infrastructure projects to a value of over €20 million have been completed for the Naval Service, with a further €17 million worth of projects at either procurement, design or construction.

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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/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18