Mr. John Twomey:

There are three elements to the ongoing work to deal with cybercrime. We have regionalised much of our cybercrime capacity and introduced units in the south-eastern and southern regions. Additional units have been introduced at regional and national level. There is a programme of work to increase and enhance capacity from a tactical perspective.

From a strategic perspective, at national level, we have a superintendent specifically in charge of dealing with cybercrime and boosted the resources available to him. Cybercrime is evolving and changing more quickly than most other areas of police work. This is an area to which we pay constant attention because it is constantly evolving. We do a lot of work with academic institutions, corporate bodies and our European partners. It is continuing to evolve and improve. A lot of work has been put in within the organisation, from both tactical and strategic perspectives.

An Garda Síochána does a lot of work with the National Cyber Security Centre. There is a member of An Garda Síochána permanently placed with it and working with other agencies. It is continuing to improve. The position is considerably better than it was a year or two ago and will be considerably better again in the future. It is under constant evaluation and review.

We have provided additional resources for the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation to address white collar crime and will keep the position under review. Where additional resources are required, they will continue to be provided.