Lack of national security strategy 'grave and epic failure'

'At a moment when Ireland faces emerging domestic terrorism and increasing foreign threats, it is beyond shocking that the State continues to operate with a national security infrastructure that is not fit for purpose.'
The development of Ireland’s first national security strategy is still “ongoing” — almost six years after a government commission called for it.
The report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland (CoFPI), published in September 2018, recommended the immediate establishment of a strategic threat analysis centre, headed by a full-time national security adviser.
The centre should bring together the work of the various intelligence agencies and departments and provide an analysis and coordination functions, all underpinned by a national security strategy.
The Government published an implementation plan for CoFPI report in December 2018.
The renamed National Security Analysis Centre was set up in 2019 and a director was appointed in July of that year.
A public consultation on the national security strategy, covering the period 2020-2025, began in December 2019 and the strategy was supposed to have been published towards the end of 2021.

Since 2022, the Department of the Taoiseach has cited the impact of covid as well as developments in international security as reasons for the delay in publication.
When asked by the
when the strategy would be published, the department said: “In addition to its other work, the National Security Analysis Centre is co-ordinating the ongoing work in drawing up a national security strategy, drawing on inputs from a range of relevant stakeholders.”The continuing absence of the national security strategy has coincided with the crippling cyberattack by a Russian gang on the HSE, the presence of Russian navy ships off Irish-controlled waters and mounting fears for the security of underwater digital cables and energy pipelines.
There has also been the rise of a domestic far right and associated violence, including threats to Irish politicians all the way up to Taoiseach Simon Harris, the first suspected Islamist attack in the country and related concerns around radicalisation and disinformation on social media.
Professor Ben Tonra of UCD School of Politics and International Relations said: “At a moment when Ireland faces emerging domestic terrorism and increasing foreign threats, it is beyond shocking that the State continues to operate with a national security infrastructure that is not fit for purpose.
“The Government no longer even offers an explanation for the absence of a national security strategy promised in 2019 and said to be 'nearing completion' in 2021. This represents a public policy-making failure of grave seriousness and epic proportion.”
Professor Andrew Cottey of the Department of Government and Politics at UCC said: “Ireland is an outlier amongst European states in not having a formal public national security strategy document.
He added: “With an election coming, it should surely be a priority for the next government.”
The CoFPI also recommended that Garda security and intelligence “be strengthened”, in particular through a “ring-fenced budget”.
It also said the section (since renamed the Garda National Crime and Security Intelligence Service) must have the ability to recruit specialist expertise — analytical, technological and legal — “directly and quickly”.
It said these issues were a “matter of urgency” given the serious threats to national security.
The
understands there has been little, if any, significant strengthening to the service and the dedicated budget appears to be “off the agenda”.Direct recruitment has not happened and appears to be tied up with wider industrial relations issues regarding civil servants as employees of An Garda Síochána.