Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In recent years, more than 110 laptops and similar devices have been stolen from different Departments. Various e-Government projects have been spearheaded by the Department of the Taoiseach. One of the obvious consequences of e-Government is that the State inevitably accumulates vast amounts of information about the personal details of people's lives, whether that be health information, information relating to farms and farmers, or otherwise. If one is having a smart economy drive and an e-Government drive, it is inevitable that the Government ends up holding vast amounts of data about different aspects of people's lives.

I want to restate the question. First, devices which store data may be stolen or lost, perhaps because officials have them in their cars or take them home with them, or because the offices where the devices are held are broken into. The general public want to know what provision is in place for a type of rapid warning system which all Government agencies and Departments would sign up to in order to alert people to the fact that what to them may be sensitive information has been lost or compromised in some way. Second, given that the Department of the Taoiseach has over the past ten years led the information, smart economy and e-government project, would the Taoiseach not agree it is a matter for his Department to set standards and responses in regard to the observations from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner concerning the security of devices, particularly concerning the issue of informing people whose data and personal information may have been compromised in one way or another?

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