Mr. Pat Larkin:

The State should be leader, co-ordinator, enabler, incubator and accelerator. That is the role of the State, whether it falls to the NCSC, the Taoiseach or whoever else. On Mr. O'Reilly's point, we must be highly innovative on cybersecurity. We must produce a mainstream of core cybersecurity professionals. There is a simple model that would build cybersecurity knowledge, which is simply to embed a relevant cyber-related module in all professional and academic courses. I am formerly of the Defence Forces and my former colleagues tell me they run 2,000 or 3,000 people through a career course every year. If we added a cyber module to that course, we would produce 2,000 or 3,000 cybersoldiers every year. Culturally, the organisation is asking what to do with them. They will leave. We can tell the Defence Forces that they are producing people who can defend the cyber realm, no matter the role they are in, for the Defence Forces. The same applies to lawyers, teachers, academics and public servants. Including those modules in courses would build a cybersavvy workforce and citizenry. The fundamental point is that cybersecurity needs to be a national and economic priority.