Aubrey McCarthy (Independent)

I welcome the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament. He has an amazing ambassador representing his country in Ireland: Leena Gardemeister. She is very welcome here this morning.

I want to mention some sad news, which is the disturbing report of the alleged sexual assault of a young girl in Saggart. My thoughts and prayers are certainly with the child, her family and the people who were meant to be looking after her. The wider community is devastated by such news, and rightly so, but the incident certainly raises questions – they have been mentioned in this House this morning – about how a vulnerable child under the care of Tusla and who was meant to be protected was not adequately protected. We have to demand answers and accountability in this regard. On another note, we have to seek answers on the accused individual and the circumstances surrounding his presence in the community.

Equally troubling was the violent unrest last night in Citywest. Fireworks were thrown at Garda vans and blown up. The gardaí are doing their best to protect us all in the community. To see them attacked by our own is simply unacceptable. The behaviour was not only putting the public in danger but also members of the gardaí, who were simply doing their duty. Violence is never the answer. As with after the riots in Dublin, those held responsible for the events in Citywest must be held to account. I call for a full and transparent investigation into both incidents. The public deserves clarity and action. We must ensure our systems to deal with what happened in Citywest safeguard the vulnerable and that public order is upheld. I ask the Leader to schedule time with the Minister for justice to address these matters in this House as a matter of urgency.

There is an urgent need for increased cybersecurity across both public and private sectors in light of the disruption last weekend to Amazon’s Web services. My Duolingo crashed so I could not learn Irish. The disruption caused widespread outages, affecting businesses and services. We must remember what happened the HSE in 2021, which exposed serious vulnerabilities in the national infrastructure. Cyber threats are escalating, not just in frequency but also in sophistication. We have to act to protect our critical systems and that means investing as a country in robust digital defences, staff training and protocols. I call on the Leader to schedule a debate with the relevant Minister to outline Ireland's cybersecurity strategy and ensure we are not left exposed again, as we were with the HSE. The digital resilience of the country is surely a national priority.