Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brendan Smith for raising this issue. He is absolutely right. The whole area of cybersecurity is a major issue of growing concern to both the public and private sectors and to modern life. We are seeing more and more crime now move from physically happening in a business place or in terms of a burglary in a home to online cybersecurity issues and cybercrime.

The cybersecurity sector is absolutely vital in both underpinning and securing much of our modern society. I very much recognise the importance of ensuring sufficient provision across the further and higher education sector, which is why I am grateful to the Deputy for raising this issue.

Last year, more than 1,600 learners took part in cybersecurity and related programmes in the further education and training sector. The planned number of learners on these programmes this year is now over 2,000, which is quite a significant increase. Courses include e-college courses such as IT specialist in network security, post-leaving certificate courses such as software, coding and cybersecurity and skills to advance courses such as cyber awareness. Skillnet Ireland also provides a wide number of enterprise-led cybersecurity upskilling programmes to businesses within the technology and broader sectors. This is where Skillnet will go into a workplace and provide upskilling opportunities to its employees. In 2022, 14 Skillnet business networks provided cybersecurity training to more than 1,400 businesses and 2,400 participants in the further education sector.

Across the higher education sector, there were 38 courses available in cybersecurity in ten different universities throughout Ireland in the 2021-22 academic year. Under Springboard+ and human capital initiative, HCI, pillar 1, 16 courses in cybersecurity were available in 11 different institutions for the academic year this year. Springboard+ and HCI pillar 1 programmes will be launched in the coming weeks, and I am pleased to assure Deputy Smith that further cybersecurity and related courses will now be available for the next academic year starting in September. The HCI pillar 3 cyber skills project, which is led by Munster Technological University, will enable unprecedented collaboration between higher education institutions at a national scale. This has the potential to be transformative for the cybersecurity domain.

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