Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are actively working on this issue. The advisory council, which came from the Hamilton report, is up and running. It has representatives from all of the key areas that would one expect across the Government and the private sector who are working to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with what is a very significant issue of public concern. We are all seeing the increase in the activity levels here and the attempts at crime and fraud in this space. That said, the provisional crime statistics for 2022 released by An Garda Síochána in March show that technology-based fraud such as phishing, account takeover and online shopping fraud went down in that year, following a significant increase in such activity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are absolutely committed to doing all we can, working with others in the private sector, to tackle this issue. The advisory council is developing a multi-annual strategy which the Government will then fully implement.

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