Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was involved in helping to oversee the management in response to that cyber attack. What we saw in terms of the calibre, dedication and sense of duty among the people we had was beyond compare. The Deputy is correct that a lot of the time these people would be earning significantly higher salaries within the private sector, but many of them come with a history of involvement with the state. Some are Defence Forces personnel and they have that patriotic sense. They also learn a lot in this role. There tends to be a relatively constant flow of staff from the private sector into the public sector and back out again. That can be healthy in terms of mixing skills and learning new skills.

As I said, when it came to beefing up the National Cyber Security Centre, there was no restriction in terms of what we needed to do around pay or positions. We went about that in a way that, first and foremost, involved increasing resources on an urgent basis. We have taken on a director, a principal officer and an assistant principal officer and competitions are under way for a whole range of different cybersecurity operations roles. I am confident that we will fill those roles and that we are able to get skilled people. The National Cyber Security Centre is a very good agency. In terms of the manner in which it shares information, it is an open and trusted organisation internationally, which means for anyone who is working there it tends to enhance their reputation. That makes it an attractive place for people to work in.