Ireland’s military intelligence service has set up its own training school to grow staff numbers as the unit seeks to significantly expand operations.
It is also sending officers to US military installations for lengthy training camps to improve the Defence Forces’ “intelligence tradecraft” and enable them to operate more efficiently overseas and at home.
The goal is to create a more “adaptive and competent” force, which will have a presence across the country.
It is part of a dramatic overhaul and expansion of the military’s intelligence apparatus.
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Other developments include an official renaming of the agency to the Irish Military Intelligence Service (Imis). It was previously known as the Directorate of Military Intelligence, J2 or G2.
A new purpose-built headquarters has been opened in Dublin, separate from the training facility, and there are plans for additional secure facilities around the country, starting at the Naval base in Haulbowline, Co Cork.
The developments follow recommendations from the Commission on the Defence Forces in 2022 to modernise military intelligence, open up an intelligence school and bring the unit under the control of a brigadier general.
Earlier this year the Coalition’s programme for Government also pledged to “review our military intelligence structures to ensure that our intelligence services are optimised to protect national security”.
Traditionally, the Defence Forces has refused to comment on the activities of military intelligence. Its precise function and its interaction with the Garda Security and Intelligence Service, which retains primary responsibility for State security, are shrouded in secrecy.
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However, the latest issue of An Cosantóir, the Defence Forces internal magazine, has published details about developments in the service.
“The primary role of Imis today is to provide strategic warning to the general staff and the Government of threats to Irish sovereign interests on [the] island and to troops and/or facilities deployed abroad, a role which has expanded significantly from the G2, J2 roles of old,” it said.
“The service also plays a role in ensuring national security with other State agencies.” Imis also acts as the State’s external intelligence service, it states.
The Defence Forces Intelligence School, which is based in the Training Centre in the Curragh, Co Kildare, was set up last June.
It will train recruits in various forms of intelligence gathering including human, signal, geospatial and open source intelligence, the publication said.
Fifty three Defence Forces personnel have been chosen for the first “joint military intelligence qualification course”. This is a “fundamental shift” in how the Defence Forces selects intelligence officers.
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Students who complete the course will join Imis and be assigned to specially designed intelligence hubs around the country.
As part of this expansion process, Irish military intelligence officers have been sent to the US Navy facility in San Diego and the United States Army Intelligence Centre of Excellence in Arizona.
Irish Army officers have undergone “extensive” training at the Arizona facility, with Air Corps and Naval officers going there next year.
Through various courses, personnel will focus on “critical thinking” and “analytical tradecraft”.
In Ireland newly qualified intelligence officers and noncommissioned officers “are currently instructing the next generation of Irish military intelligence professionals, ensuring the long-term benefit is a more adaptive, competent and situationally aware force, reinforcing national security while also deepening international ties,” the publication states.
Imis is one of several State agencies empowered to conduct communications surveillance of citizens. It recently called on the Department of Justice to update legislation around this surveillance to allow it to intercept communications carried out on internet platforms such as WhatsApp, Gmail or Facebook messenger.
