Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
149. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Defence the investment planned for enhancing Ireland’s cybers-security capabilities within the Defence Forces; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [72014/25]
View answerFollowing the establishment of the Joint Cyber Defence Command (JCDC), a Defence Forces Cyber-Defence Strategy 2024 to 2027 was published last year. This Strategy sets out a comprehensive road map to ensure that the Defence Forces achieve operational capability in this new domain.
To give effect to this Strategy, the assignment of 19 Defence Forces specialist posts has been approved for this unit. This includes the assignment of a Brigadier General to the role. My Department is engaging with the Public Appointments Service to recruit 10 civilian cyber specialists who will be embedded in this new Cyber Unit, it is intended that such posts will be filled as soon as possible. To that end, recruitment campaigns are under way to fill these roles with an initial focus on roles related to cyber threat intelligence and cyber resilience.
I am satisfied that from a Defence perspective we are developing a positive trajectory to ensure that the new Cyber Command Unit is well positioned to meet the ambitious targets set out in the Cyber Strategy.
