Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to hone in on the public warning system, as others have. I do not have the correct name for the cell broadcast public warning system. I would love to hear more on that. It is a fantastic idea. We are a nation of hypochondriacs as well. Will it be the case that when there is a red weather alert, this will go out onto someone's mobile phone, or will it be something of a greater magnitude? In principle it makes a lot of sense, but months ago, someone in my county got an email from the Minister and the Tánaiste. I could not believe this but it was an issue for the person. It was a hoax of course. It said that as members of Government, they were advising her about a fantastic investment scheme and this woman lost money on it because she believed that the Minister and the Tánaiste encouraged her to do this.

While a lot of people who are tech savvy and are aware of scamming and everything else, there is potential here that while for all the good this national earth system will bring, other text messages might also be flying around. We all get them, including messages that a parcel from An Post did not deliver today, and a €1 customs penalty has been levied because it has not been picked up. We get these messages and many of us know that there is no parcel waiting in customs because we do not have something waiting for delivery from An Post. It is okay and everything is kosher with Revenue.

A lot of us know these messages are hoaxes and we delete them. There needs to be front-footed investment of time and effort on the part of the State to ensure that the bona fides of this system are absolute and it does not get exploited, particularly for vulnerable and older people. We need to ensure this message is not something that can be used and abused by the many hoaxes that we have in this country and beyond. It speaks to cybersecurity as well.