Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach will be aware that since the Cabinet security committee last met, there appears to be a sustained cyberattack under way directed specifically against countries that have recently imposed sanctions against Russia. The reported targets go beyond general databases and extend to critical infrastructure. For example, it appears the British power grid has been attacked, as have various air traffic control systems. While there are parties here who seem to believe that Russia is an innocent bystander which has, at the very worst, been forced to behave like this, the majority are deeply concerned about what is going on. It is noteworthy that the Russian Government has acknowledged the behaviour of the cyberattack group, which was recently subject to US sanctions, though of course it also claims to have known nothing about its work. As I said before, a series of our national risk assessments have identified cyberattacks as potentially the most damaging risk to Ireland. The response has been highly complacent with no real sense of urgency.

Is the Taoiseach happy that the systems are in place to identify quickly any such attacks against our critical IT infrastructure and that we have in place the expertise to protect ourselves in such cases? Given the rising number of countries being targeted it seems unlikely that Ireland will remain untouched.

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