Mr. Ciarán Cuffe:

I thank the Deputy. Certainly, in my own submission to the Defence Forces public consultation on the future of the Defence Forces, I mentioned cybersecurity and stated that it will be a core competency of the Defence Forces in years to come. In fairness to Vice Admiral Mark Mellett, the former head of the Defence Forces, he has spoken at length about cybersecurity threats. The Defence Forces are aware of the issue and I am sure they would like to have more resources to address it.

I am aware of the incidents to which the Deputy referred. There have been incidents where foreign submarines have been located beside undersea cables with aircraft circling overhead. It is like something from James Bond movie. The worry is that foreign powers are stealing data from these cables. We do not have the capability to have complete oversight, particularly when these cables are in international waters.

Whatever about international ICT cables, we will be more dependent on energy networks connecting us to other EU member states. We are already connected to the UK but the Celtic interconnector will connect Ireland to France. A Norway-UK cable opened within the past month. This interconnectivity is happening at an increasing rate and it is hugely dependent on ICT to ensure that these entities operate correctly.

Even closer to home, I remember when a water pipe broke in Dublin and I asked the team repairing it what happened. They told me somebody clicked the wrong button on a pump and the pressure built up. We are really dependent on a secure ICT system to deliver the day-to-day services on which we depend. Every branch of Government must focus on ensuring it is ready for the most severe threats that are out there and that will increase.

Ms Boix Alonso alluded to the need for umbrella legislation at European level to cover all consumer items that are connected and I see a gap there which may be addressed within the European institutions in future years to ensure that any new device has certain levels of protection that are easy to understand for the consumer and that will stop unwanted intrusions into connected devices elsewhere.