Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will address my remarks to Mr. McKeon. He is not getting to share the burden with the other witnesses even though doing so would have been beneficial this morning.

I wish to discuss the reply about energy use. Mr. McKeon acknowledged an increase in expenditure on energy which was reflected in the reply to the parliamentary question I tabled. I want to go through some of the reasons that accounted for it. Mr. McKeon said there was a significant increase in gas and electricity prices. The cost increased between 2019 and 2021. However, 2020 was quite different in that prices plummeted in that year. While that might be the case in 2021, there was a fluctuation but some of that fluctuation was also downwards. I accept some of the points Mr. McKeon made about shift working, the extra accommodation the Department required and some of the other reasons. He also stated that the Department met the target reduction between 2009 and 2020, which I acknowledge.

Mr. McKeon stated:

Even though 50% of staff worked onsite, remote access was required to facilitate the remaining staff working off site. For security and other reasons, a remote access protocol was used which required desktop PCs to be maintained in a powered on position (remote PCs were simply used as a screen rather than having access to data and systems directly). The Department is currently rolling out secure laptops to staff to eliminate this requirement.

Would that be a clear demonstration of a risk or a weakness? I know that blended working was very much accelerated by the arrival of Covid. The fact that that is being done now, would that have been on the risk register, for example? We saw the cyberattack on the HSE in 2021.