Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Any breach of confidentiality is inexcusable and is not tolerated in the Department. Disciplinary action, up to dismissal, has always been taken in cases over the past few years. Given the number of staff and the amount of information held, the number of incidents is small and few staff have been involved. That is not to excuse it because people need the comfort of knowing their information is secure. The Department is examining the most up to date ways in Ireland and internationally of protecting information. There is a multi-year programme to implement a new information security architecture for the whole system. In so far as people can have confidence that their information is private, the Department goes to the nth degree to ensure confidentiality is maintained and the information is protected, whether the information is kept inhouse or transferred elsewhere.

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