The Defence Forces made the “correct decision” in not shooting down unidentified drones off the Irish coast during an official visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
He was speaking on Saturday during a trip to Lebanon, where he met Irish peacekeepers at Camp Shamrock, the main Irish base for troops serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), located about 7km from the Israeli border, reports Breaking News.
Mr Martin said he received a “very detailed briefing” last week from Tánaiste Simon Harris and other Ministers regarding the drone incident.
“I think, on the operation response, the correct decision was taken and the correct approach. There is an investigation underway at the moment – obviously, nothing can happen until that is concluded,” Mr Martin said, reports Breaking News.
The Taoiseach said An Garda Síochána is formally investigating the matter.
“I had a detailed brief with the chief and his team, the Garda Commissioner, in terms of the broader visit of president Zelenskiy, which in terms of security was successful – it’s important to state that.
“The drones did not constitute any danger to civilians in any shape or form,” reports Breaking News.
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The rogue drones, which were launched as President Zelenskiy was arriving in Ireland, came within 500m of the Irish Naval Service vessel LÉ William Butler Yeats.
However, security sources told The Irish Times last week that officers aboard LÉ William Butler Yeats believed that, due to the rules of engagement in place at the time and the presence of civilian aircraft overhead, they could not open fire, reports Breaking News.
According to The Irish Times, senior gardaí have privately criticised the Naval Service’s decision not to shoot down the five drones that were seen hovering near the ship late on Monday night, roughly 13 nautical miles off the coast in Dublin Bay.
The Taoiseach said he was “absolutely backing” the Defence Forces’ decision not to fire on the drones and that he had “absolute trust in the operational decision making” at the time, reports Breaking News.
Mr Martin said the incident “reflects a broader pattern of activity across Europe in terms of incidents of this kind”.
“We are not the first country in Europe in recent times to have drones emerging, and it’s an evolving situation. A pattern has developed in various hybrid activities such as issues in the Baltic Sea and we have activity in the maritime space,” reports Breaking News.
The Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces has also said his teams acted appropriately by not escalating the situation when the drones were detected during President Zelenskiy’s visit.
Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Rossa Mulcahy told Newstalk that the operational decisions taken aboard the ship were the correct ones, reports Breaking News.
“We know that president Zelenksiy’s plane had already landed at that time and the crew made a correct and timely decision to deescalate the situation and not to use any force and I just wanted to put that on the record and again to commend the actions of the crew,” reports Breaking News.
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