Independent TD Cathal Berry for Kildare South, the former Deputy Commander of the Army Ranger
Wing (ARW), has been speaking out about the National Cyber Security Centre following the cyber
attack on the HSE and the Department of Health.
Deputy Berry commented ‘Our capability is improving but it is still very limited. The capacity of the
National Cyber Security Centre needs to improve on three fronts – premises, budget and staff. It’s
incredible that we still don’t have a dedicated premises yet and their budget of €5 million a year is
not sufficient. Most importantly, from a talent perspective, we need to improve the amount of
people there. There is currently only 25 people on the staff and the appointment of the Director of
the National Cyber Security Centre has been vacant for the last year.’
Deputy Berry stated ‘The National Cyber Security Centre was intended to be a multi-agency entity
with the support of members of An Garda Síochana and the Defence Forces. However, as a result of
the staff retention crisis in the Defense Forces, two seats are vacant and that’s simply just not good
enough. The Defence Forces need their own dedicated cyber unit’.
He warned ‘This is just a criminal attack from a small criminal entity, if this was a full-on military
grade state-on-state attack we’d be looking at much more serious consequences down-stream’.
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