Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)

Like the Minister, I welcome the fact that the NCSC is now within the remit of the Department of justice. I welcome the fact that he is giving priority to the cybersecurity Bill, but he might provide an outline as to when he envisages it coming before the House. While I welcome the fact that the NCSC regularly carries out assessments of cyber risk, I wonder if an assessment has been carried out as to exactly how vulnerable some of our critical infrastructure happens to be. For instance, how easy might it be for a malign actor to knock out the traffic lights in Dublin, with the ensuing chaos that would result, or stop all bank payments to public servants or social welfare recipients? What systems do we have in place to seek assistance from or offer assistance to like-minded states if a cyberattack were to happen here? We need to co-operate, particularly with our EU partners. Similar to Storm Éowyn, where we sought assistance from overseas, I believe we will need to seek and offer assistance where like-minded countries are attacked.

This is a global issue and, therefore, when it comes to overseas aid, we should be offering to help developing countries to build their cyber resilience, given the expertise in this country. They are often subject to attacks by some of the rogue states in this area. We need at an international level to start demanding accountability, particularly from the four states most responsible for cyberattacks around the world: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. They are engaged in or sponsor cyberterrorism, cyberespionage and the spreading of misinformation and disinformation, which represent threats not just to this State, but to others that share our values. In the same way we rightly hold countries to account for actions in wars on the ground, we need to hold them to account where they act in a malign way in cyberspace.

See this speech in context