Ireland to join intel-sharing alliance amid fears over threat to subsea cables

The island of Ireland has three subsea electricity interconnectors, all linking to Britain. This site in Youghal, Co Cork, is about to become the Irish landfall of the fourth, the Celtic Interconnector linking our electricity grid to the French network. Picture: Howard Crowdy

Ireland will on Monday join a powerful alliance of nations that shares intelligence and information on potential threats in EU sea waters.

Tánaiste Simon Harris has approved plans to join the Common Information Sharing Environment (Cise) in order to boost Ireland’s maritime surveillance.

There is increasing concern within the Government that Irish subsea gas and electricity supplies, as well as underwater communications cables, are highly vulnerable to attack.

Last week, the Irish naval service was involved in a surveillance operation after a Russian spy vessel entered Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Ireland will now operate within the information sharing environment from Haulbowline, Cork, which will be formally deemed as a “node” — linking up and sharing information with the other members of the alliance.

“This initiative is all about working more closely with our EU counterparts in order to keep our seas safe and secure," Mr Harris said.

Ireland will now be in a stronger position in terms of information and intelligence sharing when it comes to our maritime environment

“I very much believe that European security is best served by working together, and that very much goes to the heart of what this initiative is about," he said.

Best maritime picture

The alliance is made up of 10 other EU countries, including Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Finland and Portugal.

The information sharing environment enables those with access to the network to gather information to get the best maritime picture available and shares data across all types of maritime institutions, both civil or military.

The European Commission has led on the development of the Common Information Sharing Environment over the past 15 years and covers the protection of critical maritime infrastructure, illegal fishing, search and rescue, border control, pollution response and drug trafficking.

Mr Harris has also confirmed that he has directed his officials in the Department of Defence to expedite the purchase of radar and sonar technology — in order to greater protect our skies and underwater cables.

Stressing the urgency to acquire the technology as quickly as possible, Mr Harris said: "We have obligations to ourselves, and I think we have obligations to the wider world in terms of our coastline."

The Tánaiste has emphasised the need to increase spending on security and defence, and told the Irish Examiner in February that investment should reach the highest possible level — around €3bn annually — in the coming years.

"The programme for government talks about reaching what they call level of ambition two by 2028, and that basically gets to the €1.5bn," Mr Harris said, referring to recommendations in the Commission on the Defence Forces report.

“But I think we are going to have to go further than that in time. The programme for government does talk about moving towards level of ambition three."