Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 547: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the equipment and data that was lost or stolen from his Department in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46660/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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There have been no reported losses of desktop PCs or memory keys in my Department to date in 2008. There have been two Blackberry devices lost, neither of which was recovered or found.

There have been no reports that any sensitive data has been compromised by these losses. The level of personal information relating to members of the public processed within my Department is very small.

Whilst the risk of personal data being released is considered very low, my Department is in the process of identifying a suitable product that will provide encryption for laptops and other portable devices. It is expected that this will be selected, and implementation started, in January 2009.