Oh dear they love their lock downs.
This is what happens when you let lunatic greens loose in the dail remember the storm in February when people had no fireplaces to keep warm imagine 6 months of that.
Greens closed the power stations that were fed for our bogs, closed coal burning power stations making Ireland dependent on import using undersea cables watch the unit cost soar if there is a event and I suspect there will be a event Russia will be blamed but there are bigger forces at play
Threat of rolling blackouts and six-month lockdowns if Irish sub-sea cables hit, secret Government plans reveal
Ireland’s infrastructural vulnerability to Russian attacks has grown in recent times
Ireland could face rolling blackouts and lockdowns for up to six months if our sub-sea gas infrastructure is attacked or damaged, secret government emergency plans reveal.
The Irish Independent is aware of confidential details of an emergency planning exercise held last December between major state agencies and the Government.
Fears over the vulnerability of Ireland’s underwater pipes and cables to Russian sabotage have grown substantially.
This week alone, several vessels under international sanction entered the Irish exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Ireland gets 80pc of its energy needs through the sub-sea gas interconnects, and 68pc of that goes to the generation of electricity.
Damage to the interconnecting pipeline from Scotland, via the Isle of Man, could have a catastrophic impact on our economy and the provision of essential services.
Back-up generators for industries including pharma and food production, and hospitals, prisons, universities and airports would require huge amounts of diesel, as would power stations.
In recent years, and up to now, Russia has deployed a fleet of spy vessels in Irish waters. There have been situations where ships have turned off their transponders and tried to conceal their locations as they loitered over undersea cables.
A mini-submarine has even been launched from such a vessel.
An incident in November last year, just weeks before the emergency planning exercise on December 3, the Russian naval vessel Yantar loitered directly above the gas interconnector that is controlled by Gas Networks Ireland.
The Government later carried out an inspection of the pipeline to ensure it had not been tampered with.
The vessel has been involved in multiple sub-sea cable information gathering incidents and is believed to have returned to Irish waters in recent days.
On the back of the November 2024 incident, and following high-level briefings from energy security experts, the Government agreed to develop a state-led Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), a large vessel that can store liquefied natural gas and distribute it to the national grid.
However, an industry source said that in the event of damage to the underwater gas pipelines, these reserves would only plug the gap for “a very short period”.
The high-level emergency planning exercise, named Exercise Cathal, took place on December 3 last year in the National Emergency Coordination Centre (NECC) and was attended by more than 80 representatives from all government departments and agencies.
It involved a run-through of responses at different times following the failure of the pipelines. These included the reaction in the immediate aftermath, nine weeks later and then six months later, shortly before the gas supply would be predicted to return.
The contingency measures discussed included immediate, no-notice blackouts. These would be initiated by ESB Networks, directed by Eirgrid and termed Controlled Demand Reduction. They would continue on a rota basis.
Dublin residents, for example, would be advised their electricity would be off between 2pm and 6pm on Wednesday, followed by Galway and Mayo on Thursday.
Where wind energy could bridge the gap in electric power generation, times of low or no wind could require drastic measures, including lockdowns and blackouts.
Lockdowns would be needed in the most extreme situations to reduce fuel consumption of people travelling and redirect it to energy production.
Gas curtailment would see different gas customers placed on an order of priority list with essential services protected from blackouts in most circumstances. These would include healthcare, emergency services, security, education and public administration.
Other industries, regarded as non-essential, but which would be protected from curtailment, include retail, manufacturing and construction.
Security and defence analyst Declan Power, who has served with the Irish Defence Forces and the UN and EU missions abroad, said the threat from Russia is real.
“It’s not a case of are they likely to do anything. The fact is they have done the groundwork in enabling themselves to do it. They have mapped out our subsea infrastructure. The threat is real. Our authorities are wrestling with this.
“The interconnectors, the internet cables and any other element of under-sea infrastructure and other critical infrastructure need protecting, particularly the energy interconnectors – it would be catastrophic if they were damaged.
“Two key things are energy and water – if you were to interrupt the flow of them in Ireland, you would create a situation on the ground that would be akin to a battlefield or missile strike without the actual missile strike.
“A simple thing like damaging the interconnectors is a classic example of hybrid warfare in that scenario. Would you have a smoking gun? Could you attribute that action directly to the Russian state?
“They could inflict serious blows without having to take accountability or responsibility and could do so without triggering Article 5, as we are not a Nato nation.
“It is a new form of warfare where they are sort of skirting around, testing the boundaries of alliances.
“We are an easy mark in some ways. This is why they pay us attention – they are curious about Ireland. They certainly don’t consider us as neutral.
“We don’t need to join Nato, but what we need to do is knit together our own bespoke co-operations and alliances.
“One of the things the Russians are looking to see is who will respond and how they will respond.
“We need to normalise the fact that we rely on the RAF for air-policing and security, and we will need to rely on a relationship with the UK and the Royal Navy for undersea security and other institutions and agencies.
“And that is perfectly as it should be as a friendly nation with common interests.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment outlined the context of Exercise Cathal.
“The National Risk Assessment (NRA) 2023, prepared by the Minister for Defence in conjunction with the Office of Emergency Planning, specifically highlighted an elevated risk to energy infrastructure and singled out an attack on gas interconnectors between Ireland and the UK as a worst-case scenario,” the spokesperson said.
“The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment has responsibility for this risk and must ensure that mitigations are in place to reduce risk and protect the system against its occurrence.
“The exercise tested the whole-of-government response to a prolonged gas outage in Ireland as a result of the two gas interconnectors being compromised.
“Since Exercise Cathal, the Government has progressed the establishment of a strategic emergency gas reserve, which will act as a key mitigant against the risk of a prolonged gas outage.
“The Departments of Defence and Climate, Energy and the Environment are funding a pilot programme at the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) relating to maritime security research.”
The spokesperson said this will assess risks and threats to underwater infrastructure in Irish and EU waters; advance maritime cyber-resilience of shore and offshore assets; enhance maritime domain awareness through surveillance and data integration; support energy and infrastructure security against hybrid threats; and foster national and international dialogue through expert conferences and policy.”