Behind The Story: Hybrid warfare, EU summits and pay deal

How do our security forces manage the murky cyber threats that have dominated the headlines as we approach the largest gathering of world leaders Ireland has ever hosted?

On this episode, we talk to former Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces Mark Mellett on the spate of recent cyber threats and the scale of the security operation involved in hosting two major EU summits on Thursday and Friday.

He says the nature of the recent bomb threats, including hundreds of threats to schools here and in several other European countries, are designed to cause confusion and potentially ferment discord.

"I think really it's about causing unease. It's trying to undermine and disrupt services. It's about consuming resources. It's making things irregular for normal citizens in the country. But it's also, I think, about undermining the institutions ... and it’s about sowing confusion," he says.

Mark Mellett says we should be careful around attribution in the absence of evidence but adds that in the past "it's been quite clear for Russia to become stronger, all that needs to happen is Europe to be weaker".

He also says that there could be further disruption. "I think it's inevitable that there will be other events. perhaps escalating further, but always below the level in terms of attribution, enough to sow confusion to actually create, I suppose, uncertainty. And that's really the objective of a hybrid warfare campaign."

Despite a previous lack of investment in defence, Mark Mellett says that Ireland has the security capability to host an event of this scale. "It’s important to have confidence in the institutions." He also says Ireland will be supported by the UK and other EU countries in this task.

"For a state like Ireland to succeed in an event like this, it must also be recognised it can't do it on its own. In fact, this is beyond the capacity of any single state. The international nature of this is such that you need to actually work closely with partners."

Overnight marathon talks produce new pay deal – what’s in it ?

Tomorrow's public sector strike has been called off as unions finally agreed a pay deal with the Government.

So what does an increase of 10.75% over 2 years and 9 months actually mean?

Our Work and Technology Correspondent Brian O’Donovan breaks down what the agreement means for workers and the exchequer and what happens next.

Public sector unions will now be balloted on the deal over the coming weeks - the big question, he says, is "do they want this pay deal or not."

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