A Royal Navy warship and a Merlin anti-submarine helicopter are operating off the Irish coast today, providing air defence for the meeting of EU defence ministers in County Wicklow, with the ship required to remain outside Irish territorial waters, according to The Irish Times.

Conor Gallagher, the paper’s crime and security correspondent, reports that the ship was requested by Irish authorities to provide air defence during the event at Druids Glen, part of Ireland’s hosting of the EU presidency, and that the Irish Defence Forces lack the capability to conduct long-range air defence themselves.

The vessel has its transponder switched off and is not visible on open source marine tracking. The helicopter operating from it was trackable for around two hours on Monday morning, using the callsign Renegade, and The Irish Times reports that it appeared to briefly inspect a Portuguese cargo ship, which an Irish Air Corps aircraft later inspected as well.

The Merlin is the Royal Navy’s principal anti-submarine helicopter, carrying dipping sonar, sonobuoys and a search radar, and is equally capable of building a surface picture, which is the role it appears to be performing here.

The constitutional limit

As we reported last week, the requirement for the ship to stay offshore stems from legal advice to the Irish Government that deploying foreign military forces on active operations within Irish territory would likely be unconstitutional even where their presence had been formally requested. The advice cites Article 15 of the constitution, under which only the Oireachtas may raise a military force on Irish territory.

Irish territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles, or around 22 kilometres, from the coast.

When we asked about the tasking last week, a Royal Navy spokesperson told us: “The UK and Ireland regularly cooperate on shared security challenges. We do not speculate on potential operational tasking of Royal Navy vessels.”

The Irish Government has so far declined to confirm officially that it requested assistance from foreign forces during the presidency, according to the paper.

Criticism at Westminster

The arrangement has drawn objection from at least one British MP. As we reported, John Cooper, the Conservative member for Dumfries and Galloway, wrote to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting on 28 August saying he was aghast at reports that any vessel involved must stay outside the territorial limit.

He wrote: “This insistence that foreign warships remain outside Irish limits hampers their effectiveness. The Royal Navy is being asked to do a bad job. To add insult to injury, British taxpayers are footing the bill for this bodge.”

Cooper accused Ireland of freeloading on defence, argued that its policy of military neutrality has not been matched by investment in its own capability, and noted that while the Irish Defence Forces had spotted uncrewed aircraft in previous incidents they had no ability to interdict them, lacking meaningful air-to-air or surface-to-air capability beyond a small number of short-range missiles.

Irish warships open fire with main guns

Not the first time

This is the second occasion on which a foreign navy has provided air defence for Irish EU presidency events. The French air defence frigate Aquitaine was stationed off Dublin on 1 July, outside territorial waters, during events opening the presidency, and did the same off the coast of County Cork the following day during a meeting of EU commissioners, with an Irish naval officer embarked.

Irish forces are running their own operation alongside the foreign contribution. Operation Fianna is directed by a joint task force based at McKee Barracks in Dublin, coordinating ground, sea and air units including anti-drone teams at major events. The Irish Times reports that the Naval Service ship LÉ Samuel Beckett was operating closer inshore off Wicklow on Monday, with a C295 maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters flying patrols.