It is five days since the ransomware attack was revealed. This is escalating into a pretty serious national security crisis and I am not sure it is on the radar to the level it should be. This morning when I was driving up to Dublin, one of my local GPs got in touch. One of his patients had been contacted by a medical organisation from outside the State with all his details as regards a procedure he needed and his medical history. This organisation knew, in effect, exactly what he required medically and was offering, in a short period, to be able to provide the operation he needed because it could see he was not going to get it for some time as a public patient. The family contacted their GP and An Garda Síochána and, in fairness to the GP, he contacted An Garda Síochána. I am not going to get into the details and I do not want to know the details of the individual. If this is happening on any scale throughout the country, we have a big problem.

The Financial Times has revealed, and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, said he believes the report to be accurate, that 27 files relating to 12 people, including laboratory results, admission records, etc., have been published on the Dark Web. This seems to align very much with the story I heard this morning from the local GP in my county. I want to know what is the plan in this regard and I do not want a generic answer. I say this with a sense of deep worry. As probably the only Deputy in Leinster House who asked about the security of the IT systems in the HSE over a number of years, including, last December, in regard to Windows 7 on 37,000 machines, I want to know what the plan is.

I have a number of specific questions. There is a duty of care to the tens of thousands of staff of the HSE regarding their personal data. What is the plan in this regard? How should people who are going to be contacted similarly to the person I described be advised in respect of what they should do? Is An Garda Síochána ramped up on this scale or the Data Protection Commissioner? What advice should be given to people? What is being done in regard to the prioritisation of bringing back services? What is the priority list, so that we can give some comfort to people as regards when they can expect services to be back? How do we ensure that the scaling up that is going to be done to deal with this issue is an investment for the future as well, given that I estimate the costs could run to more than €100 million?

Finally, when will we be able to give guidance to the public as to what to do when they see that potentially their medical information-----

Thank you very much, Deputy. Your time is up.

-----is available online? All this needs to be dealt with very quickly to give people guidance.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and I acknowledge his consistency on it. I will say what I have said consistently since this attack. It is a despicable thing to do to attack a health service and to engage in theft of people's personal medical records. This is a criminal enterprise and this is what criminals do in situations like this. We have to be very clear on two things. First, people should contact the Garda if situations such as those the Deputy has outlined arise. The Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau is dealing with this issue on the criminal side and from an investigative perspective. The national cybersecurity team is dealing with external support and hundreds of people are working on this right now, and have been since the weekend, with a view to restoring services. The objective is to get services resumed as quickly and as safely as we possibly can. That involves a strongly co-ordinated effort across government and I assure the Deputy that that is happening in co-operation with specialist private sector contractors. That work is under way. We want to get systems, including radiology, diagnostics, maternity services, infant care and radiation oncology, back online. Regarding some of the voluntary hospitals, work is progressing. Vaccination and Covid test and trace are operating without the GP referral system for testing, and people with symptoms may attend test centres without an appointment. The HSE is providing ongoing updates on service availability on its website. We are not engaged, and as a State we cannot become engaged, in rewarding and funding this kind of criminality.

That is not the issue.

It is an important aspect of the issue.

I do not think the Deputy expects me to comment on the plan because those who are endeavouring to hold the State to ransom would be very interested-----

I am asking the Taoiseach to give people comfort. That is all.

-----in finding out about the Government's response and the security advice we are receiving as to how to respond to this. The Deputy will accept that. There are, therefore, limitations to the degree of public comment I will make on the State's response to this beyond what I have said on the restoration of services. We are very conscious of our duty of care. It is appalling that people would steal-----

Thank you, a Thaoisigh. We will come back to you.

-----people's medical records and seek to exploit them for commercial gain.

I take an interest in this. Before I was in politics, I worked as a manager in IT services. I asked those questions about Windows 7, working with some other people, purely because there was a huge risk. Following through on that risk, I understand exactly what the Taoiseach is saying about the volume of information he can give. As for the public's comfort, however, I am sorry but there is not enough information out there.

I have two questions. First, will the Taoiseach give some sort of indicative timeframe or a prioritisation order, perhaps not today but this week, as to when services can come back? Most importantly, for people whose information could be online or who could receive it in other formats, what are they meant to do? Not everybody knows how to ring up various organisations, so surely two things should be done. First, details should be put up online so people know where to go and, second, there should be two helplines, one for the public who have concerns about this and one for the staff of the HSE internally.

Thank you, Deputy. Your time is up.

They should have an avenue to go through internally with concerns about their personal data.

Again, every effort is being made. The HSE is communicating internally with staff about this on an ongoing basis. It is very difficult for the HSE at all levels and for all workers on the front line. The frustrations are enormous. This is a very serious attack on our health service, and the overriding priority is to get the systems back up and running as quickly and as safely as we can in line with the advice we are getting. The Deputy has worked in IT. My understanding is that the restoration is slow and has to be methodical and definite, so it is not possible to give an indicative timeframe right now.

Will it be weeks, months or years?

We will do this as fast as we possibly can.

I asked about a helpline.

The public should in the first instance, if they are contacted in the manner in which the Deputy's constituent was contacted, do exactly as his constituent did in contacting both their GP-----

Not everyone can do that.

-----and in particular the police.

Thank you, a Thaoisigh. Your time is up.

We will work to provide-----

The Taoiseach should set up a helpline.

Thank you very much. The time is up. I call Deputy Boyd Barrett.