Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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110. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment how many staff members in his Department have received training in cyber security in the past three years; what types of cyber security training programmes have been conducted; if he will provide details of these programmes; and of the staff trained in cyber security, how many have obtained accredited cyber security qualifications. [50796/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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All staff in my Department participate in mandatory cyber security awareness training annually on an ongoing basis through auto-enrolment. Additionally, new joiners are automatically enrolled and targeted to complete their training on joining.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is under the remit of my Department. Staff recruited to the NCSC have specialist technical qualification requirements and are highly skilled across areas such as computer science, software engineering, information technology forensics, and cyber security compliance, as well as general cyber security skills. Recruitment campaigns in 2022 included a qualification of at least level 7 on the National Framework of Qualifications Or at least three years’ experience of working in information technology, cyber security and governance.

Specific training and qualifications of staff working in cyber security will not be disclosed for operational security reasons.