Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As part of our budget last year for 2024, there was an unprecedented allocation of €155 million specifically for digital capital investment and IT. This was coupled with the sustained increased investment in Garda numbers. The more members we have in the technical bureaus and the more investment we have in ICT, the more we can increase our capacity and capabilities to prevent, address and respond to these types of crimes.

There is also engagement with our European and international partners. For the past several years, significant progress has been made in working with Europol and Interpol and right across Europe to ensure we have a more joined-up system, because online fraud obviously knows no boundaries. Many of these activities are being undertaken by negative actors abroad and impacting people here. There have been major levels of co-operation. Equally, wherever we have an option to opt in to any changes in this regard or advances in technology to enable us to be part of a European-wide system, we are doing so. We are doing this as quickly as we can. Additionally, we are also following through with legislation in this regard, some of which I brought forward to the Cabinet only about three weeks ago.

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