Malcolm Byrne
Question:88. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Defence to provide an update on her visit to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn. [32725/26]
View answerThursday, 7 May 2026
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On 17 April, Minister of State for Defence, Thomas Byrne T.D., visited the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, during his visit to Estonia.
The visit provided a valuable opportunity to see first-hand how Ireland’s membership of this centre of excellence has benefitted Ireland, and in particular the Defence Forces, since Ireland joined in 2023.
The Estonia-based centre is a multinational cyber defence hub with a total membership of 38 nations from across the world, with member states ranging geographically from Iceland to Australia, including both NATO members and non-NATO members. It allows members to work together and to pool knowledge to combat the threat of cyber-crime and enhance cyber defence.
Membership of the Centre allows Ireland and the Defence Forces to avail of training opportunities, best practice examples, and sharing of expertise in the cyber domain. At present, the Defence Forces has one member seconded to the centre.
The insights gained through access to the latest cyber research, training and exercises continue to support our national cyber resilience, and contribute to the ongoing development of Ireland’s cyber defence posture.
As an illustration of these benefits and insights, it may be useful to highlight two valuable Cyber Exercises that Ireland has participated in as result of our membership of the Centre of Excellence, Exercise Locked Shields and Exercise Cyber Coalition in 2025.
From an Irish perspective, our engagement on Locked Shields 25 was led by the National Cyber Security Centre, with support from the Defence Forces and the Reserve Defence Forces, and with engagement from the private sector.
The overall objective of this exercise was to test the ability of member states to protect physical systems in a real-time environment, where they were under cyber attack, while at the same time undertaking strategic exercises in both the legal and communication spheres. This is an example of how Ireland’s membership of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence contributes to the national cyber defence capabilities of Ireland, across government, and with the private sector involvement too.
On Exercise Cyber Coalition, this exercise provided the opportunity to conduct cyberspace operations for military and civilian entities by exercising the development of situational awareness, sharing of cyberspace intelligence, and the conduct of cyber incident management. The Defence Forces led the Irish element of this exercise with participation from the Reserve Defence Forces, the National Cyber Security Centre, ESB, Iarnród Éireann and the private sector.
These exercises enhance both Defence Forces and wider national cyber preparedness, by strengthening interagency cooperation and operational response capabilities, and sharing of public-private expertise.
To conclude and to reiterate, Ireland’s membership of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence ensures that we remain connected to the most current international thinking on cyber defence.
Cyber threats, and the defence of our networks, is an ever-changing and evolving situation. Membership of this centre enhances our ability to protect our critical national communications infrastructure and defence networks.