Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The bottom line is this. What an embarrassment that this State, in which we constantly talk about our sovereignty and neutrality and hear all the other nonsense about the defence of the State, is unable to protect the very lifeblood of data that come through this country or the economic zone for which we are responsible? People speak about the "cloud" as if it was up there. It is not. It is beneath sea and is coming in off our west coast. We have no idea what is going on there.

We must remember one thing, however. In the middle of a war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Government was able to roll out a digital system that allows citizens to access some 7,000 government services. So humbled were the Estonians by that, and they are the leaders in digital technology in the world, at the recent conference that they said they hoped to emulate in Estonia what has happened in Ukraine. When we tried to introduce a public service card here some years ago, as the Cathaoirleach will recall, it caused consternation. At the hotel in Estonia, I was speaking to a young woman who told me she gets supermarket discounts using her public service identity card. She is able to bank with the card and can electronically sign documents with it. Where are we going in this country? The defence of the country is my key concern. We need the Minister to come to the House and actually answer questions rather than talk down-----