Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Friday, 22 January 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2019 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment

1:00 pm

Mr. Mark Griffin:

I will respond to that before Mr. Ó hÓbáin comes in. If one asks anybody who has a cybersecurity centre in any state, he or she would be remiss and probably foolish to say any of the facilities are well-resourced because the situation is so dynamic. We have 26 excellent staff in the National Cyber Security Centre. We are near finalisation in the recruitment process for a director and chief technology officer. We have a separate policy piece in the Department. The work Mr. Ó hÓbáin is doing now is taking account of the 2019 strategy and looking at what additional resources are required to support that. A capacity review is under way and we expect it to be completed by the end of quarter 2. It will examine whether we have enough resources and, if not, how many extra resources we need, and what type of people we need in terms of numbers and levels. In truth, the effective functioning of any cybersecurity centre is less about capital investment and more about investment in human capital, which is where our focus is.

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