Ukraine War Dail Éireann — 2026-03-24 ============================================================ Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central We want more sanctions and there could be challenges down the line if the global crisis continues. Deputy Byrne raised the issue of cybersecurity. It is a huge issue, and many private sector organisations are under fairly regular attack. A lot of them are occurring from within Russia. There could be third country backers that back certain hackers or people involved in cyberwarfare, or there can be criminal entities, but that are known to the authorities in Russia. The Conti group is believed to have caused the attack on our health services during Covid-19. It is inconceivable that it would be allowed operate with the freedom that it does in Russia without some tacit acknowledgement or support from the administration or the government there. The Deputy also referenced the Courts Service. It is a very significant source of concern for us. We have to build up. We discussed this with the United Kingdom Government the week before last when we met with Keir Starmer and the ministers. It is a big concern for them. We want to co-operate more with them on knowledge around technology and how best we can resist cyber-attacks. Collaboration is the name of the game in countering cybersecurity attacks, which is about learning from the experiences of others that have had them and about trying to pool our best brains to counter such attacks into the future. With regard to the shadow fleet, legislation is being passed that will enable Naval Service personnel to board them or our naval vessels to intercept them. They will also be able to put queries to the operators of these ships regarding their legality and a whole range of other issues. There are a lot of environmental concerns around the shadow fleet. Many of them are potential maritime disasters if there were leakages of oil and so on, which would have devastating impacts on the marine environment. They have been disrupted by a number of EU member states. They have been boarded and so on. The idea was to try to disrupt the modus operandi of the shadow fleet and to make it less efficient in terms of its service to Russia during these times. Deputies Ó Cearúil and Whitmore raised Aughinish Alumina. It is a very significant employer in the mid-west and it supports hundreds of jobs directly and indirectly. It also has a connection to the supply chain within Europe in terms of steel and its products. That is why there has been a general principle at European level that we should not damage ourselves disproportionately, particularly given that it is an industry that is under attack anyway from broader issues around how the global economy operates today in terms of some countries giving more protections, subsidies and so on. However, I am concerned about the report because that was never on the agenda. The report states that it supplies to intermediaries who are then supplying it on to Russia to be used for armaments. That is a concern, and we will examine it to try to get the background to it. It is not just about Ireland. It has a relevance to other EU member states in terms of its production. In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I made it clear in my speech at the White House about Ireland's adherence to UN nations, the need for a UN mandate and its adherence to the international rules-based order. I articulated that strongly, as I did about the need for the war to end and for a peaceful resolution. We are dealing with a very repressive regime in Iran that has been conducting a surrogate war for years on an ongoing basis against many countries. In the Middle East, it is particularly----- --- 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/2026-03-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-24