The €40m facility policing the major summits in Dublin this week

Members of the Garda Water Unit carry out security checks outside the Convention Centre in Dublin ahead of the upcoming meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) on Thursday. Picture: Niall Carson/Press Association

A secure communications facility at Dublin's Heuston Station will serve as the command centre for Ireland's policing and security operation during this week's international summits.

The Garda Command Centre brings together all the relevant sections of An Garda Síochána along with senior representatives of the Defence Forces and the National Cyber Security Centre.

The country's policing and security services are operating on a heightened state around the clock this week ahead of Thursday's European Political Community summit and Friday's meeting of EU heads of state and government. The EPC will attract up to 55 heads of state, including Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as British prime minister Andy Burnham.

Both events are taking place at the Convention Centre, on Dublin's north quays near the Irish Financial Services Centre, with formal dinner held across the River Liffey at the National Gallery. An expansive road exclusion zone has been set up on both sides of the river, along with extended air and maritime exclusion zones.

The Garda centre, known as India Base, is located in the National Train Control Centre at Heuston Station. Opened in 2023 at a cost of €40m, the state-of-the art premises operates as the Garda Communication Control Centre for the Dublin Metropolitan Region.

Other key emergency services for this week’s events, such as Dublin Fire Brigade and the National Ambulance Service, are based at the National Train Control Centre, along with Dublin City Council and Irish Rail.

The strategic commander of India Base is Dublin Metropolitan Region assistant commissioner Jonathan Roberts, who is an accredited strategic firearms commander and public order gold commander.

The tactical commander is Chief Superintendent Joe McLaughlin, based at Garda HQ, who has been working specifically on the EPC for the last year.

There are separate tactical commanders for each of the Garda functions such as traffic, public order, national security, criminal justice (if there are investigations and arrests), and communications.

The Defence Forces is represented by the deputy commander of the Defence Forces joint task force, which was set up for Ireland's EU presidency and brings together all branches of the Defence Forces under its command.

This deputy commander, an unnamed lieutenant colonel, provides live information to Garda tactical commanders about Defence Forces assets and intelligence and relays back to the join task force.

The range of assets sought by gardaí spans the army, naval service, and air corps, and includes specialist engineering services, bomb disposal, counter-drone technology, air policing, and maritime security.

The LE George Bernard Shaw, an offshore patrol vessel regularly involved in maritime security and defence patrolling of the coast, has been berthed at Dun Laoghaire and is expected to be the primary naval asset this week.

As happened for previous high-level summits, a French naval frigate is expected to operate outside Irish territorial waters, in support of Ireland. Given the visit of Mr Burnham, a UK naval asset may also patrol its waters.

Ireland signed a revised memorandum of understanding with Britain last March and a France-Ireland strategic framework on security and defence last January.

While the air corps has not been resourced with fighter jets, air assets likely to be operational include a mix of the Pilatus PC-9M aircrafts, AW 139 helicopters on anti-drone operations, armed with machine guns to shoot drones down, if necessary, the Eurocopter EC135 police helicopter, the Garda Otter 288 surveillance aircraft, and the Air Corps C295 maritime surveillance aircraft, with search radar.

• Cormac O’Keeffe, security correspondent