EU defence commissioner drawing up plans to protect transatlantic undersea cables

The LÉ James Joyce passing Roches Point in Cork Harbour. The Irish naval service is currently only able to send out one vessel on patrol at any time and still has not been equipped with sonar which could detect the activities of submersibles underwater. File picture: Eddie O'Hare

The EU’s first defence commissioner is drawing up plans to protect vital transatlantic undersea cables — and following a warning that Ireland does not have the resources to adequately protect them — he has been asked into talks to draft in European and British navies to help do the job.

That is according to the leader of Fine Gael in the European Parliament, MEP Seán Kelly, who says he has already discussed the need for such moves with the EU’s newly-appointed defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius.