Recent Cyberattack and its Impact on the Health System: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2021-05-18
============================================================

Catherine Connolly (IND), Galway West

Maybe I could take some time of the Deputies who did not show up, with the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence. I say that tongue in cheek. I welcome the Minister's written speeches and thank him. I tremble when I hear the Minister for Health saying that it will take weeks, while I understand there are difficulties, until services resume as they were. To put that in context, if one takes just orthopaedics, people are in agony, not according to me but according to a consultant who has written to us repeatedly. Some 1,143 people are waiting on the inpatient list for orthopaedics and 6,602 are on the outpatient list, and so on. We got a reply to say it would take 18 months. In the last two weeks before this, we were told to ignore that 18 months but that it would be cleared some time in the future and they could not possibly tell us. That is just orthopaedics. Of two operating theatres, one is still gone more than four years later and there is complete uncertainty about an emergency department. We are now telling people to wait because of this cyberattack.
As somebody who pleads total ignorance when it comes to this area, I am still able to ask what risk analysis was done. What was pointed out to the Department with regard to the underfunded and underresourced National Cyber Security Centre? It has existed since 2011 and is in its tenth year. What risk analysis came forward about the underresourcing and understaffing?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-05-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:17+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-05-18