An Cosantóir

April 2020

An Cosantóir the official magazine of the Irish Defence Forces and Reserve Defence Forces.

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www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 21 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.

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