{"id":511668,"date":"2026-06-21T21:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511668\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T21:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:57:09","slug":"new-defence-powers-will-be-in-place-by-july-1st-vows-mcentee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511668\/","title":{"rendered":"New defence powers will be in place by July 1st, vows McEntee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Legislation to allow the Irish Naval Service to board ships linked to Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d will be enacted in time for the start of Ireland\u2019s EU presidency in 10 days, the Minister for Defence has said.<\/p>\n<p>Amendments to the Defence Act were announced in March amid growing concerns about the activities of ships suspected of being part of Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d and reports of damage to subsea infrastructure in European waters.<\/p>\n<p>Strategically important undersea communications cables lie off the Irish coast, along with gas pipelines and electricity interconnectors.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the Defence Forces have the authority to enforce certain laws at sea on behalf of other government agencies.<\/p>\n<p>But this legislation will, for the first time, give them specific maritime enforcement powers under the Defence Act.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Helen McEntee appeared on RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s This Week programme and was quizzed on whether the legislation would be ready for the July 1st deadline she set earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>She said it has passed all stages in the D\u00e1il and is now in the Seanad, adding: \u201cIt is absolutely the ambition that this will be done by July 1st, so we\u2019re going through the different stages, and yes, this will be done by July 1.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new powers are necessary, she said, so Ireland\u2019s Defence Forces can respond to \u201cnew and emerging threats\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cshadow fleets\u201d are made up of \u201clarge illegal tankers from Russia that are quite literally traversing our waters\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"not-prose no-underline\" data-action=\"click\" data-category=\"Read more article clicked\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/temperatures-set-to-rise-to-30-degrees-this-week-1916710.html\" data-value=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/temperatures-set-to-rise-to-30-degrees-this-week-1916710.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cc-weather-06-e1782064000268.jpg\" class=\"rounded-sm object-contain bg-transparent z-10 w-full h-full not-prose\" alt=\"Temperatures Set To Rise To 30 Degrees This Week\" width=\"278\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Ireland<\/p>\n<p>Temperatures set to rise to 30 degrees this week<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only are they selling oil that is funding and fuelling the war in Ukraine, but they are also an environmental hazard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut also, there are serious questions as to what it is that they are doing in our waters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said she wants defence force personnel to have specific legislation so \u201cthey can board, that they can direct, and that they can remove them from our economic waters\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legislation to allow the Irish Naval Service to board ships linked to Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d will be enacted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-511668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}