Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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101. To ask the Minister for Defence if he will provide, in tabular form, by country and by month for each of the years 2011 to 2014 and for 2015 to date the number of unauthorised foreign military naval incursions into Irish territorial waters detected by the Irish Defence Forces; the response by his Department to each incursion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22598/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), all vessels, including Naval vessels, have the right to innocent passage in territorial seas. Responsibility for the authorisation of visiting foreign Naval vessels to enter Irish ports rests with my colleague the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

I have been advised that the Defence Forces are not aware of any unauthorised foreign military naval incursions into Irish territorial seas.