Mr. Carl O'Brien:

Another issue raised by Deputy Ó Snodaigh related to the lack of note taking. It is a serious issue. A culture has set in whereby officials try to avoid taking notes where possible. Post-it notes are made but they are not officially on a document and they can be removed when the official documents are released which means we do not necessarily see the advice that is being to a Minister by a civil servant. Increasingly, there is evidence of the use of private e-mail accounts being used, which are not subject to FOI rather than official e-mail accounts. One suggestion is that there would be a legislative obligation on public officials to use official e-mail accounts or to commit everything to paper. That is a potential way of tackling the culture that has arisen, in particular since 2003.