Large energy users would face significant risks if Ireland’s power grid were to come under attack, Tánaiste Simon Harris will warn a government taskforce today.
Harris is chairing a meeting of the Government’s Taskforce on Emergency Planning where discussions will focus on Ireland’s preparedness and ability to respond to potential attacks on the national energy infrastructure.
It is understood the taskforce will examine findings from ‘Exercise Cathal,’ a simulation that “war-gamed” a scenario involving damage to Ireland’s gas pipelines. The exercise was designed to test emergency response protocols and identify vulnerabilities in the country’s energy security framework.
The high-level meeting comes amid growing international concern about the vulnerability of critical national infrastructure to sabotage and cyber attacks. Recent incidents across Europe, including damage to undersea cables and suspected sabotage attempts on energy facilities, have heightened awareness of such threats.
The taskforce is expected to review existing contingency plans and possibly recommend enhanced security measures for critical energy infrastructure. Particular attention may be given to the protection of gas interconnectors, electrical transmission networks, and data centers that house critical systems.
According to The Irish Examiner, energy security has become an increasingly important issue for Ireland, which relies heavily on imported energy and has a growing number of large industrial users and data centers that place significant demands on the national grid.
The meeting represents part of the government’s broader effort to strengthen national resilience against a range of potential threats to critical infrastructure.