Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)

This comes back to my earlier question a little bit. We will continue to have a significant challenge in recruiting and retaining key staff for an area such as this unless something significant changes. If we get things right, the Defence Forces can offer a very rewarding and interesting career for people who have the skills and capabilities in this area but I do not think we are in the right position at present. I did not take a note of the number of staff the Tánaiste mentioned but we are speaking about a number of staff being recruited or seconded for the cybersecurity command. The long-term ambition is 100 additional staff under level of ambition two and up to 300 or another 200 additional staff under level of ambition three. Where are we at with regard to specialist staff?

I would also make the point, not strongly but as something that needs to be considered, that I would be somewhat of the view that we need to consider carefully the ecosystem around cybersecurity. We need to be careful about having too many cooks in all the different agencies that could potentially have a role. I am not saying they do not all have a role but that needs some consideration and thought over the next while.

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