The Minister for Defence has declined to confirm whether a new Naval Service facility for the west coast will be considered in an overhaul of Ireland’s military capabilities.
The government’s long-awaited maritime security strategy is to be published in the coming weeks. Drone incursions over Dublin Bay during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit in December, and suspected sub-sea cable interference in the Irish Sea, means a long-mooted facility may now be prioritised for Ireland’s east coast, despite four-year-old recommendations for the west.
Increasing reports of Russian shadow fleet and organised crime activity across Ireland’s vast, Atlantic EEZ, (Exclusive Economic Zone ) is a concern, however, for Defence Minister Helen McEntee, who this week signalled a more robust maritime interdiction model for Irish naval forces.
In December, two Russian ships reportedly traversed the entire west coast of Ireland.
The 2022 Commission on the Defence Forces recommended Galway city as a prime location for a Naval Reserve facility, based on population density and plans for deep water berths at the Port of Galway and Ros a’ Mhíl, but on a visit to Renmore Barracks last week, Minister McEntee refused to be drawn.
“This [new strategy] will look at our overall maritime security in particular,” she said. “It’s absolutely essential that we protect our seas, that we focus on subsea cables – of which there are many in these waters – and that we respond to what are changing and evolving kinds of threats. Beyond that, obviously, any specific, future plans are something that we’d have to work closely with the Defence Forces on.”
Her predecessor in Defence, Tánaiste Simon Harris, pledged to converse with the Naval Service on a Galway facility in June last year, when he announced a four-week public consultation on maritime security.
Dept of Defence lands in Galway
In response to queries on the future of land owned by the Department of Defence in Oranmore, McEntee said her officials would consult with local army personnel in terms of how transferring property to other state bodies might affect military capability.
Last year, the 500 acre former artillery range, now regularly used for manoeuvres by the Galway-based 1st Infantry Battalion and other units, was touted as a possible location for the IDA to attract a stalled €9 billion investment from chip manufacturer Intel, previously earmarked for Athenry.
“Any changes – if they were to ever happen, [would be] done only in consultation with the Defence Forces, and looking at what perhaps is needed in the wider area. It’s important that there’s always engagement with the community as to how any changes might take place,” she said, before adding that her comments did not mean a decision had been made.
With regard to ongoing tension between Galway city council, Renmore Barracks management, and local residents regarding access to publicly-owned lands around Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa, Minister McEntee said she was briefed on the issue. She refused to respond to enquiries whether her department would fund infrastructure, such as new pedestrian walkways to replace long-established walking routes, now deemed unsafe or contrary to base security.
“There’s a lot of discussion happening between the local authority and the teams here locally, and I’ve no doubt that there’ll be a resolution, and a solution found to some of the small challenges that have emerged,” she said.
It is understood the Defence Forces have suggested bridges to bring walkers away from the military Service Road next to the Barracks which many people – including Galway City Council – assumed would form part of the link between the Galway-Dublin greenway terminating in nearby Ballyloughane, onward to the city centre.
In 2009, the local authority bought a parcel of land between Mellows GAA Club and the barracks from the Department of Defence, in anticipation of linking active travel infrastructure projects together. The Defence Forces’ security concerns in the wake of the 2024 knife attack on an army chaplain in Renmore, may now result in this parcel, bought for a six figure sum, becoming essentially land-locked between a railway line and closed military facility.
Council engineers are currently researching new cycle routes from Ballyloughane to the city on the northern side of the Dublin-Galway railway line, but land ownership issues are understood to be an impediment.
