277. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Defence the number of WTE IT specialists at the grade of Higher Executive Officer that are based within her Department as of 16 July 2026, in tabular form. [56915/26]

There are currently seven (6.7 WTE) Higher Executive Officers assigned to my Department's ICT Branch, four of which are ICT Specialists. An additional HEO ICT specialist has recently been assigned by Publicjobs and is due to start imminently, which will bring the total number of HEO ICT specialists to five.

Please see the following table for a further breakdown of the various categories of ICT specialist at HEO Grade.