Mr. Ronnie Downes:

That is a very fair question. It is certainly the case that when the cyberattack first impacted, it was our colleagues in the health sector, both in the HSE, early on, and in the Department of Health who bore the brunt of that attack. They had to respond in a very agile manner to deal with it, get the health system back up and running as best they could, replace what needed to be replaced and change and modify systems to promote resilience. In the first instance, the HSE and the Department of Health came up with a plan for what they were going to do about replacing, for example, laptops and software to overcome the impact of the cyberattack.

In turn, we at the centre are involved, which includes me as one of the areas I have responsibility for is working with my colleague Jim Deane in overseeing health expenditure. We also have technical experts. Barry Lowry is the Government Chief Information Officer and his office, the OGCIO, was involved in working with the health sector to come up with some learnings about how systems need to adapt. In that context, and it is a matter I am sure the OGCIO would be happy to give more information on, we have put in place some adaptations and improvements that will have service-wide impact. Likewise, our colleagues in the OGP have worked closely with our health sector colleagues to make sure that best practice is observed and the maximum efficiencies are obtained when it comes to replacing laptops.

The bill is going to be somewhere north of €80 million for 2021 in terms of the direct health sector response to the cyberattack. The Deputy is right that it is important that lessons need to be propagated throughout the system to build up the resilience that is needed across the system. We are alive to the importance of that issue.