{"id":84569,"date":"2025-10-16T15:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/84569\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:19:08","slug":"ireland-must-work-with-uk-eu-and-us-to-combat-threats-from-russia-says-taoiseach-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/84569\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland must work with UK, EU and US to combat threats from Russia, says Taoiseach \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland must work with the UK<\/a>, other EU<\/a> member states and the US<\/a> to combat the threat from Russia<\/a> on cybersecurity<\/a>, sub-sea cables and gas connectors, the Taoiseach has warned.<\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> emphasised that Russia has become more aggressive beyond Ukraine<\/a> and showed no interest in peace.<\/p>\n

In the annual Taoiseach\u2019s address to the Seanad<\/a>, he highlighted drone violation of airspace across EU states, hybrid attacks, disinformation campaigns and the monitoring of undersea infrastructure by Russia.<\/p>\n

The level of debate in Ireland, however, is \u201cnot equal to the threats we face\u201d. He said there is insufficient understanding of how dependent the country is on undersea infrastructure and how vulnerable it is.<\/p>\n

There is an \u201cexpanded shadow fleet with multiple purposes that also poses massive environmental risks and threats\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach made his remarks as he addressed the Upper House in a wide-ranging speech including Budget 2026, the Shared Island project, the Gaza ceasefire and the war in Ukraine, whose president Volodymyr Zelenskiy he expected to welcome to Ireland \u201cin the near future\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told Senators that \u201cover the last number of months, a pattern has emerged which represents a new phase of activity on behalf of Russia towards EU member states and the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland is not immune to this. We have to share knowledge and expertise with EU member states and UK and significantly increase our own defence capability and resilience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The State also has to ensure in relation to peacekeeping \u201cthat we have maximum interoperability with other Member States participating with us\u201d.<\/p>\n

His comments echoed remarks he made this week in the D\u00e1il when he said Ireland has an \u201cindividually tailored plan with Nato\u201d to deal with the issue of cyber and sub-sea security.<\/p>\n

Speaking in the Seanad he said the \u201cvolume or quality of discussion and debate\u201d on theimportance of Ireland\u2019s undersea infrastrucute and working with other countries to protect them is not \u201cequal to the threats that we face\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extent of our dependence on critical undersea infrastructure, in terms of connectivity, data security, economic resilience, energy and the vulnerability of that infrastructure, is not understood to the extent that it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cited the response to the Forum and International Security and Defence policy which he established as t\u00e1naiste as an example of this. \u201cI had to face down noisy protests and was accused of hatching secret plans to join Nato before a single word was uttered at that forum.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stressed that Ireland remains responsible for its own defence policies. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, there are areas where like-minded partners can and should do more together. We need to have a sensible and mature discussion about what areas this might include and what closer collaboration might look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, warning about the potential for Ireland to reach a \u201ctipping point\u201d on racism, as in other countries, he was \u201cvery concerned about the rhetoric, the language that\u2019s being used, the aggression out there in society\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Ireland\u2019s overall immigration policy is based on rules and is \u201cfair to those who come here to work, study and seek refuge\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said immigration had been very good for Ireland and the country had to \u201cstand up for the fundamental values of the dignity of every human being\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland must work with the UK, other EU member states and the US to combat the threat from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":["post-84569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84569","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=84569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}