Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a fair point.

On the strategic communications unit, the SCU has 15 members of staff, seven of whom worked previously in communications in the Department and were seconded from the press office or Government Information Service to the new unit. The remaining eight staff were new, if one likes, in that they came from elsewhere or other sections of the Department. It will, therefore, be a matter for human resources to decide what will happen to these staff. While I do not propose to discuss what will happen to individual staff and I know the Deputy does not want me to do so, it is certainly intended that some of them will be redeployed. Some may well be approaching retirement and will retire, while others are seeking promotion and may be moved to other sections of the Department or other parts of the public service. These are matters for the individuals in question.

One of my greatest regrets in the whole debate concerning the strategic communications unit is the extent to which 15 decent civil and public servants were brought into a public debate and had allegations made against them - perhaps not by Deputy Doherty but by others - that they were doing political work and favouring one political party. That is not true, is not backed up by the evidence and was very unfair to them. Those of us who are involved in politics sign up for this and, to a certain extent, we sign our families and friends up for it. However, these are civil and public servants and they should not have to go home to their children to answer questions as to whether daddy or mummy has done something wrong. However, that is the position in which they were placed as a result of the highly personalised and unfair commentary made against public and civil servants working in the unit. I will come back to that issue at another stage.

In terms of the €2.5 million figure, the budget for the SCU is being reduced from €5 million to €2.5 million. Of this, €2.2 million has been either spent or is committed by contract and approximately €300,000 will be required to wind down the unit.

In terms of private email, my Department has an email policy on which I signed off last October and with which I comply. I have an Oireachtas email account, an email account for the Department of the Taoiseach and a private email account. My policy and practice is to use these accounts for the purpose for which they are intended. However, there are occasions on which I have used my private email account for departmental use. This occurs in perhaps three scenarios, the first of which is when the system is down. While this does not happen often, it happens on occasion. The second is when the battery on my telephone dies, which often happens, and I then use my personal email account on my private phone. It happens much more frequently that people who have my private email address email me about stuff. These would be a mix of things, including-----