Mr. Adrian Kelly:

The AMTCE was set up by Martin O'Brien, CEO, in 2019. A large part of what we were about was to do with industry 4.0. As we talked to people around the country, including owners of both SMEs and large organisations, we were approaching this from a different angle, which was about connecting all their machines, gathering data and making good use of those data. However, in doing so, we were potentially exposing people to cyberattacks by connecting entire factories to the web. In working with Mr. Umit Uygur and others, we have committed to what might be summed up as the old adage that what gets measures gets managed. We want to work with the likes of SMEs to assist them in carrying out cyber-risk assessments. Most of them do not know they have problems. What we are doing is very similar to a model that has just been rolled out in Estonia.

Second, we are looking at several training programmes covering a whole host of IT-operational technology qualifications, to be funded under SOLAS's skills to advance initiative. As a centre, because of our connection to industry and our work in assisting SMEs, we are looking at doing the operational technology side out of Dundalk. We want to lead the way on that. It is about getting down to the programmable logic controllers and the nuts and bolts that make a factory operate. We also continue with our cybersecurity apprenticeship programme, which is very successful. However, one of the issues that has arisen in this regard, again from the academia side, is that we found it difficult to put apprentices in because industry does not have mentors who are qualified in cybersecurity. There is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation going on there.

As Mr. Hyland mentioned, we intend to work closely with and assist primary and post-primary school students and teachers. When we visited Estonia last year, it was apparent that children as young as five or six are already very tech savvy.

They were using their touchpads in class and everything else. The whole economy is based on the digital side. They are a very trusting group of people, and they take to things very quickly. If we can get in at the grassroots level, we will hopefully fill the gap from the schools up to further education and training. Then, people will hopefully go forward and apply their talents in cybersecurity, and some of them will go on to university and elsewhere.