Ms Caitr?ona Heinl:

I will address the Deputy's question about enhancing resilience and increasing our defence. My broad sense is that there are a number of relevant measures which are either being implemented in Ireland or due to be implemented. However, it is not clear whether they are under a co-ordinated framework. That said, I might give some examples that I am sure he would be aware of already. These include signing up to the declaration for the future of the Internet. Regarding economic resilience efforts, there have been a number of relevant legislative instruments and maturing regimes related to, for example, the strategic investment screening regime, export controls and so forth. There are a number of EU directives that are in the mix to be implemented shortly. I can provide a longer list another time, including, for instance, the critical entities resilience directive, NIS2, and so forth.

Vis-à-vis whole-of-government capability, the role of An Garda Síochána and civilian capability will become paramount. While the findings of the Commission on the Defence Forces report naturally focused on military capability and structures, the group found that the civil-military, civ-mil, contribution from the very beginning is key. Naturally it is up to Government to decide how to implement those recommendations. More information is available vis-à-visstructures and capabilities as they relate to hybrid, but in particular the Commission spent some time looking at how that would integrate across the civilian structures to add value.

I mentioned in my statement the measures within the current iteration of national cybersecurity strategy. It contains the types of cyber measures relevant to the cyber component of hybrid threats. I understand that the mid-term review of that strategy is under way. While it is very broad brush, I think it speaks to the breadth of the issues we are talking about.