Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

In the Department of justice, we know An Garda Síochána leads the domestic intelligence and national security operations, while the NCSE manages cybersecurity. In the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces handle external and military intelligence. In the Department of the Taoiseach, the national security secretariat provides strategic oversight and co-ordination. Will the Minister please outline the current level of collaboration between these three Departments? Is he confident that their collective cyber-resilience is sufficient to ensure that the proposed new national cybersecurity strategy will effectively protect the State and its agencies from nation state actors, for example, Russian military hackers and cybercriminal adversaries, those groups that are financially motivated to carry out cyberattacks for profit, of which Wizard Spider, which was responsible for the HSE attack, is a prime example.

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