Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. Some time ago, I had the opportunity to visit the new South West College in Enniskillen, which has an enormous catchment area in Tyrone and Fermanagh. The college was developing an innovative cybersecurity course. There are opportunities in that area for us to collaborate and ensure a good presence of such courses throughout the country. We are all aware of the desperate attack made by a rogue state or international criminals on the HSE and the Munster Technological University. It has been suggested to me, and I do not know how well founded this is, that a considerable percentage of the small and medium enterprises in this country have suffered ransomware attacks. We need to create awareness around this issue. Some people in the international community reckon that the criminal side of cybersecurity will soon equal, in monetary terms, the value of criminality in the illegal drugs trade. There is widespread criminal activity out there. It is not just the major players in the public service and the private sector or the major international corporations that will be affected. All of us, on an everyday basis, can be severely impacted by such cyberattacks. As a society, we want to prepare ourselves by having the qualified personnel to carry out the necessary work. We must ensure we are all adequately aware of the dangers.

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