Ms Josephine Feehily:

We dealt with that issue in public session at our November meeting, which was later that month. My recollection of it is that there was a fairly robust engagement with one of our members, Maureen Lynott, on that topic and we got further assurances on the record from them. We did not accept that at the time at face value; we followed it up in public. It is important to make the point that there are technical solutions that law enforcement agencies and other agencies charged with matters that are confidential must deal with all of the time. They have a responsibility to ensure they use those technical solutions such that it is not necessary to use commercial providers. It is in this regard I referenced the enterprise content management in my remarks. It is really important that the Garda remove the need for the use of external providers. Often Garda officers on the ground do not have the most sophisticated technology and consequently, in trying to do their jobs, they may inadvertently use a commercial provider, which is not a good idea. We are keen to ensure that the Garda Síochána rolls out the technology that makes it possible for Garda business to be done in a secure way at all times. The focus is on ensuring they do this right going forward.