www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE
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saw a number of opposing views on the future of the land
component and what capabilities need to be prioritised in
the coming decade while various contributions from the
floor made that point that no capabilities can be maintained
or developed without retention of personnel.
The afternoon of day two saw well attended presenta-
tions on Irish Public Sector Innovation and Unmanned
Systems and panel discussions on the future of European Se-
curity and Defence and Autonomous Weapons Systems. Our
final session of the summit was entitled 'Why Intelligence
Matters' and brought together for the first time in Ireland
former senior intelligence professionals from the Defence
Forces and Gardaí alongside retired members of Govern-
ment and the Department of Foreign Affairs to discuss
the importance of effective intelligence services to senior
decision makers across government. The panel discussed the
significant contribution the intelligence branches of both
services had made to the security of the state over the last
number of decades, the potential for greater co-operation
across all of government in intelligence gathering, the over-
sight of these activities, recruitment to the services and the
future direction of these services. It was a fantastic session
to finish with and yielded a number of talking points for all
those present.
Serving and retired members of the Defence Forces con-
tributed to the majority of our sessions whether it was from
the podium or from the floor and ensured that an informed
and healthy debate ensued on a number of topics. Countless
individuals serving and retired assisted with the planning
and running of the event in a variety of ways and we thank
them wholeheartedly for their support. A final very spe-
cial thanks to Lt Col Johnny Whittaker and all the team in
Defence Forces PR Branch for their tireless efforts in the lead
up to the summit and over the course of the two days.
The National Security Summit will return in 2021 and
dates will be confirmed shortly. You can follow us on
www.nssi.ie, or on the Slándáil Linkedin and twitter pages
for more information.
