Ireland must stop “free-riding” on security gifted by others, spend significantly more on defence and co-operate with other states to secure key undersea Atlantic cables, former Defence Forces Chief of Staff Mark Mellett has said.
None of this, however, means that Ireland should join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), the retired Naval Service vice-admiral told a debate on neutrality hosted by the West Cork History Festival.
The security threat has evolved beyond air, land and sea and now covers cybersecurity and issues in space, he said, and Ireland must learn to “hedge” against threats by being able “to collaborate with others”.
The risks facing undersea fibre-optic cables in Irish waters directly threaten Ireland’s economic future, requiring co-operation with European Union states, the UK and, perhaps, the United States, he said.
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“(The cables) are the arteries of our economic success. Trillions of euros of trade are piped through all of that. If that infrastructure was to collapse, business would collapse,” said the former Chief of Staff, who has taken up a number of roles since he left military service in 2021, including with the consultancy firm Green Compass.
“State security is inextricably linked with economic security.”
He was speaking days after Russian ambassador Yuriy Filatov threatened Ireland with “inevitable consequences” for supporting the seizure of Russian funds held in European Union accounts.
Outlining the threats facing Ireland, Mr Mellett said the Health Service Executive cyberattack in 2021 “whether we like it or not” was launched from the Russian Federation, describing it as “a terrible onslaught on our institutions”.
Meanwhile, planned exercises by the Russian Navy in Irish waters off the south-west coast in February 2022, shortly before the Ukraine invasion, were a deliberate attempt to show the European Union that it could face threat on both sides, he said.
[ Ireland cannot protect its waters alone, UN expert saysOpens in new window ]
One of “the less articulated facts” surrounding the Russian plans “to appropriate 5,000 square kilometres of Irish jurisdiction waters” was to put up a show in the lead-up to the invasion of Ukraine, he said.
“The Russian Federation could demonstrate it could bracket Europe with conventional weapons using a task force on the west coast of Ireland, and, obviously, its intention to invade Ukraine on the eastern side of Europe.
“That was a message to all of Europe. It was happening in our jurisdiction, and we couldn’t do anything about it,” he said, adding that Ireland must work with others “to ensure our jurisdiction is not being used for malign activities that will certainly threaten our neighbours”.
“Matters have changed in recent decades. We’re no longer an island behind an island. We’re part of a network of states in Europe that have been hugely successful because of shared values, shared infrastructure, a shared economy,” said Mr Mellett, one of a number of speakers who addressed the West Cork History Festival debate held in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin on Monday.
“Ireland, in terms of playing its part, has to look at how best it can position itself to carry its weight in this new world.”
Warning against “threat inflation”, however, the chair of the long-established Peace and Neutrality Alliance, Stephen Kelly, said: “There are threats, and there are military threats as well, but they’re not the same.”
Undersea fibreoptic cables are privately owned, he said, adding: “I would suggest that it’s for their owners primarily to protect them. They’re already benefitting from very favourable tax treatment.
“So, where there’s a threat there, I don’t see, quite frankly, it as being a military issue for us to protect them. I think that our military is there to defend our country as a first line of defence.”
