Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cybersecurity is going to be one of the key challenges for the State in the context of a post-Covid recovery and how we protect data and our telecommunications systems and infrastructure as more people work from home and more people require and rely on high-speed broadband connectivity, both internationally and in the State. We will have to ensure that these systems and protected and safe. In my view, Ireland will continue to be a magnet for foreign direct investment, as a gateway into the European Union, and will continue to host enormous volumes of global data in data centres. We have our own systems for healthcare, education, foreign affairs, defence and so forth that need to be protected from cyberattacks and the type of malware attack we saw in our health system, but we must protect a private sector investment here as well. We will see more consideration of, and more investment in, cybersecurity responses, given the issues that have been outlined.

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