2026-06-09

129. Deputy John Connolly asked the Minister for Defence the plans in place for an expanded Naval Reserve presence in Galway as supported by the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42813/26]

Will the Minister outline the plans in place for an expanded unit of the Naval Reserve and an infrastructural presence in the form of a Naval Reserve base in Galway, as supported both by the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces and by the maritime security strategy, and will she make a statement on that matter?

I acknowledge the important role played by members of the Reserve Defence Force, RDF, and thank them for their continued commitment and the way in which they consistently support the members of the Permanent Defence Force. The strategic objective for the Reserve Defence Force is the development of a reserve force that can seamlessly train, operate and deploy on a voluntary basis with our Permanent Defence Force, both on the island and overseas. As the Deputy mentioned, this is strongly reflected in the report of the commission. A key recommendation for the RDF was the establishment in 2022 of the Office of Reserve Affairs to oversee and support a more holistic approach to the revitalisation of the Reserve Defence Force. In July 2024, that office published the RDF regeneration and development plan. This in itself contains 27 individual actions designed to operationalise the recommendations contained in the Commission on the Defence Forces report for the Reserve Defence Force. The regeneration plan recognises that the transformation of the force structure is required for the development of the RDF. Action 22 of the plan relates specifically to the transformation of the Naval Service Reserve. As the Deputy is aware, another key recommendation from the plan is to increase the future RDF establishment strength to include a minimum Naval Service Reserve of 400 personnel. The military authorities have advised that, under this expansion, additional Naval Service Reserve units may be considered in suitable coastal centres where there is already port access. The current position is that options are being examined in the context of the wider transformation of the Defence Forces. I mentioned earlier to our colleague the three force design teams, whereby we are looking at restructuring and modernising our Defence Forces. There is one each for the Army, the Air Corps and the Naval Service. They were established by the Defence Forces. An overarching strategic force design office has been established. These teams are working collaboratively to develop a force design for the entire Defence Forces. This will include members of the Reserve Defence Force and civilian members. Work is ongoing at the moment to try to complete this. The Chief of Staff will submit a report on force design to me for consideration. Based on that, the selection of locations can take place. There is a body of work happening. I hope it will conclude soon. Once that work is done, we will be able to identify where there might be options for what the Deputy outlined.

I commend the frankness of the report by the Commission on the Defence Forces. It noted the serious area and scale of responsibility that we have in "our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the scale of fishing activity in our waters, the number of aircraft crossing Irish controlled airspace, our growing seabased energy infrastructure, and the number of subsea communications cables and sea lines passing close to our coastline". There was a full and frank recognition: ...that a more comprehensive patrol programme [is required for that area and that this could] be facilitated by the establishment of a naval support base or bases, making use of existing port facilities at locations in the west ... which would allow for faster deployment and would facilitate replenishment of fuel, fresh food and water, and the removal of waste. The location of a support base on the west ... coast ... combined with double crewing of vessels, would facilitate ships remaining at sea for longer periods as they would no longer have to return to Haulbowline for replenishment and crew changeover.

I concur with the Deputy's initial point, which is that we have 24-7 monitoring of Irish waters, of our exclusive economic zone. This is happening in the air and at sea, and it is supported on land mainly by our base in Haulbowline. We have increased and expanded our capacity, capabilities and ability to monitor what is happening above our seas, but also to monitor what is happening below our seas, in particular to protect our critical infrastructure, which comes across the Atlantic and goes through Ireland on to mainland Europe and beyond. It is an absolutely essential component of the work of our Defence Forces that we ensure we have the right numbers, that we grow our capacity within our Naval Service and that we continue to invest in our capabilities while working more closely with our European and international partners. Integral to that is the expansion and overall growth of our Reserve Defence Force members. We have seen that in other important structures of our State, notably An Garda Síochána, where our reserve members, coupled with the civilian forces, have helped to grow and expand and have really complemented the work. That is no different here for our Defence Forces.

One of the things I have often found puzzling is that the very proud and historical tradition of maritime and naval participation that a location like Galway has among its citizens seems to have petered out in recent times. The operation of a naval support base or naval infrastructure along the west coast in Galway would encourage more local people, potentially, to join the Naval Service or the Naval Reserve. That is noted by the Commission on the Defence Forces as well. To bring it on then to our national maritime strategy, one of the initial action points for the first strategy is to "Explore concept of a forward operating base on the West Coast base for the Naval Service". Everything in these studies is pointing towards the need for the west coast to be serviced by a naval base. Galway would make great sense - eminent sense, in fact - for that because it would be complemented, obviously, by the Army base at Renmore and it also has the natural infrastructure to facilitate such a development. I ask, therefore, that we start to develop the maritime strategy and that point in particular.

The Deputy is right: the Naval Service Reserve is organised across five different units. There are units in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford. The fifth unit is a technical support base, so it is not based in any specific location rather than the Naval Service HQ. If there were to be an expansion, we would be looking at other areas that currently are not covered. Again, the Deputy is right; the maritime security strategy was clear in outlining that we need to look to see if there is a need for another base from a maritime perspective. That work is already under way. I published the maritime security strategy only a few months ago. I am really ambitious that we move on as many of the actions as possible. One of those clear recommendations is that we would scope out the need or requirement for another potential naval base. As we have locations in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford, it stands to reason that we would look beyond those areas to see what we can do. While a decision has not been taken yet, I believe there is merit in the proposal the Deputy is suggesting. Obviously, we need to go through the various different processes to get to that point.

We are moving on to Question No. 131 in the name of Deputy Murphy, who is taking it for Deputy Boyd Barrett.