Mr. Richard Browne:

The strategy work has been ongoing for about a year and we expect to have a strategy in place early next year. There has been a significant amount of development in the sector, which is very fluid. We have been deeply engaged both in incident response at an operational level and also particularly with regard to work around the network and information systems, NIS, directive, which frames our entire national response to the protection of critical national infrastructure in terms of obviating and dealing with cybersecurity risks. It is also worth pointing out that the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland makes a number of recommendations around the future of the NCSC and how that will relate back to the centre. Of course, the outcome of that and the implementation report from that, which will be agreed by Government at some point in the future, will obviously have an impact on the next national cybersecurity strategy. Realistically, we are only now at a natural inclination point where we can actually make those decisions in any kind of formal way.