Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I understand this does not come under the realm of Interpol. This does not fall properly into the realm of military alliances. While we may be militarily neutral, we are certainly not neutral in this regard. I would say that in a five to ten-year period, as we try to build up an indigenous capacity, we should be leaning on all supports. I do not care where we go in that regard. Once they are nations that have a capacity to help support us and have a system superior to ours, we should lean on them as much as we can.

Some 14 months ago, before being elected to the Dáil, I was a primary school teacher. In every primary school, there is a vertical axis in the principal’s office. There is a computer that is networked all the way up to the Department. It would hold a lot of sensitive data. However, if one goes into all the classrooms, one could have a Windows 95 or Windows 97 laptop, which is linked back to the principal’s office. This would be typical of every school in Ireland. There is a real chink in the armour there. If one were to get into a teacher’s laptop at any time, there would be everything from tests to assessment data. There could also be very sensitive information. That is just in education. It is probably replicated in the small two or three garda Garda stations in rural Ireland or in the local health centre run by the HSE. We probably have fairly robust systems in the central vertical axis of organisations, but it is far weaker as one moves out. I would like to ask Mr. Larkin whether the chink in the armour is those outposts of State organisations and Government agencies.