Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his answer. As we all know and as he said, cyber-resilience is really critical in this modern world. We need robust cybersecurity to protect our digital systems and data from unauthorised access and misuse and from theft and damage due to the increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. Cyberattacks are increasing in frequency, complexity and destructiveness and can compromise our critical infrastructure across geographical borders without even being present in this jurisdiction. That is the real threat that we are facing as a nation. The national cybersecurity strategy the Minister outlined is the vision and the roadmap for how to effectively enhance cybersecurity and resilience across public bodies, essential services, businesses and households. I recently had a quick look at the Defence Forces' cyberdefence strategy for 2024 to 2027, and I was very impressed by their ambition to ensure that their strategy delivered cyber capabilities that could prevent, monitor, detect, defend against and recover from cyberattacks. Does the overall national cybersecurity strategy that is being currently developed have the same ambition for collective resilience? Will it be ready by the end of 2025?

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