Ireland and Britain hold first drill to test response to subsea cable attack

There are as many as 25 cables off our shores that connect us to Britain, America and some European countries - and are vital to the Irish economy

Ireland and Britain have held a high level exercise - to see how the two countries would respond to an attack on vital subsea cables.

The exercise, called Eastern Pearl, was held in Dublin on Wednesday - amid increasing concerns that subsea cables off our shores are easy prey for attack.

There are as many as 25 cables off our shores that connect us to Britain, America and some European countries - and are vital to the Irish economy.

As well as sending telecommunications data from here, the cables also include major interconnectors for electricity - and even pipelines for gas.

But they are all now seen to be at risk of sabotage, with some experts pointing the finger at increased threats from Russia - although that country strongly denies it is any threat to Ireland. The Naval Service now runs regular patrols to protect the cables.

Both Ireland and Britain worry the cables and pipelines in the Irish Sea - and now they have run an exercise to see how they would react to an attack on some of them.

The exercise came after both countries agreed on a framework earlier this year on how they would respond together to an attack - as well as how they would coordinate decisions and information.

Eastern Pearl, which was held in Dublin on Wednesday, was the first of its kind and involved civil servants from Ireland’s Department of Culture, Communications and Sport - who are in charge of the cables.

They teamed up with their counterparts in the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to run the exercise - which was based on a scenario of several subsea fibreoptic cables being targeted.

A spokesman for the Irish department said representatives from a number of government bodies were involved as observers in the exercise.

He said: “The scenario simulated disruption to multiple communication cables in the Irish Sea. It was a desktop exercise.”

Sources also tell us representatives from the Defence Forces and the UK military were also acting as observers in the exercise.

And a source said the scenario simulated an attack on cables.

The source said: “ It was a joint exercise to see how both governments would respond to a realistic subsea cable disruption scenario.

“They tested each element of the framework, from initial notification and information sharing, escalation and crisis coordination to recovery and lessons learned.”

And speaking after the exercise, Patrick O’Donovan, who is Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, said a strong relationship with the UK was vital to protect the cables.

He said: “Today’s successful exercise marks a key milestone in the development of enhanced cooperation between Ireland and the United Kingdom in preparing for disruption to our shared critical undersea infrastructure.

“Strengthening partnerships and working relationships with our neighbours will be key to improving the resilience of the network of international subsea telecoms cables serving Ireland, the UK and Europe.”

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