“There is a risk” of sea cables being sabotaged, said Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who added that Ireland needs to work with other countries and with experts” to develop a stronger resilience of economic infrastructure at sea.
He was speaking at a three-day conference in Valentia, Co Kerry, which will discuss the security and resilience of the network of subsea cables on which the world relies for commerce, communications and technology.
“We’re doing a lot now to protect against that risk. There is a risk. We’ve seen for example in the Baltics, all sorts of hybrid attacks on member states of the European Union,” he said.
Mr Martin said that cooperation was the best way to protect against attacks.
“Like cybersecurity, you can’t do it on your own. You’ve got work with people who have the expertise in terms of enabling us to be ahead of the game.”
The conference is being attended by representatives of the US, British and Dutch navies.
Valentia Island was chosen as the venue for the conference, as it was from there that the first transatlantic cable was laid more than 150 years ago, later making land fall in Newfoundland in 1858.
Today, more than 500 subsea cables crisscross the globe.
Countries, communities and society depend on these for the conduct of business, for instant communication, to support technology and for interactivity.
Beautiful day in Kerry for the Valentia Island Subsea Symposium.
Our EEZ waters are home to fibre optic cables that carry communications across the globe.
Events like today’s important to identify innovative ways to improve security and resilience of key infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/CuLgmdtjuB
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) October 11, 2024
This is the inaugural subsea cable security and resilience conference.
It is being held against a backdrop of a rise in geopolitical tensions.
Selecting Kerry as the venue for the conference is also symbolic, given the increased activity by the Russian navy and associated Russian merchant ships off the south and west coast of Ireland over the past number of years.
These ships have regularly been positioned close to submarine cables in Irish waters, raising concerns that the locations of these cables are being mapped.
Russia has denied that the presence of its military ships off the south, southwest and west coast of Ireland represent a threat.
Describing media reports about Russian navy ships in Irish waters as a non-story and “hugely over-blown”, Russian Ambassador to Ireland Yury Filatov has said: “No harm whatsoever is intended to infrastructure, marine life, air traffic, marine traffic.”
The conference is being hosted in Kerry by Valentia Transatlantic Cable Foundation.
Its chairperson, Leonard Hobbs, said it was appropriate that the future security and resilience of the world’s subsea cables were being discussed in Valentia, where the first subsea cable was laid over 150 years ago.
“Concerns about the security and resilience of vital subsea infrastructure are mounting,” Mr Hobbs said.
“Recent subsea incidents have garnered the attention and scrutiny of national governments, regional, international organisations and the media.
“The subsea cables connecting Ireland and traversing its waters are not exempt now to such attention or scrutiny.”
The Tánaiste will tell the conference that this country’s strategic importance in terms of subsea cables is clear, with fibre optic cables that carry 97% of global communications lying across Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The conference got under way yesterday and will finish tomorrow.