Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As far as I am aware, this committee covers cybersecurity so I am happy to answer a side question on this matter. A capacity review was carried out, completed and returned to me. The result of that was that I brought a memorandum to Cabinet to increase the budget and staffing for the National Cyber Security Centre over the coming five years, including the hiring of 20 additional staff within the next 18 months and creating a new position of director of the National Cyber Security Centre at a grade of deputy secretary. I am very happy to give the committee a private briefing on what was included in that capacity review. It did not find that the National Cyber Security Centre was not fit for purpose. It found that we should be hiring more people in the coming years and it compared us with other cybersecurity centres around the world, which was interesting to see, but it was really looking at what are we going to need in the future to keep pace with the increasing threats. I would be delighted to come back and give a full rundown to the committee, or talk to the Deputy or any other member who wants to ask me about this directly. It would probably make more sense for me to come back to the committee in private session.