Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Engagement on Cybersecurity: European Defence Agency (Resumed)

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate that and Deputy Howlin has drawn attention to that fact. We all accept the difficulties we are facing and if we did not, the ransomware attack on the HSE proved the danger of the new world in which we live. I am always somewhat wary of defence issues, particularly in regard to army and military co-operation being melded into the conversation around cybersecurity meets cyber defence. I will just put that out there and I do not expect the witnesses to answer specifically in that regard.

The witnesses went into detail in regard to what the EDA deals with. Will the witnesses give some detail on its overall remit? We have a general notion of that but how exactly does the EDA define cyber defence capacity? How are things operating in regard to the relationships at this point in time in dealing with individual states, whether that is dealing with individual militaries, individual police services or the likes of the National Cyber Security Centre here? How do the witnesses perceive that will change? Obviously, there will be updated protocols on how we operate into the future. Regarding the exercises, reference was made to the seven member states that have engaged in these. Can we have some detail on what exactly we are talking about, which states they are and what these exercises were?