Written answers
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Department of Finance
Departmental Property
5:00 pm
Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 89: To ask the Minister for Finance if laptops, art works, paintings, sculptures, computers, mobile telephones, blackberries or other equipment has been lost or stolen from his Department or its agencies since 2007 to date in 2009; the circumstances surrounding the items' disappearance; if action has been taken to recover the item or items; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4018/09]
Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The details requested by the Deputy in relation to my Department are contained in the following table.
| Year | Item | Circumstances |
| 2007 | UBS Memory Stick | Lost — No Departmental data was on the device at the time |
| 2008 | UBS Memory Stick | Stolen — No Departmental data was on the device at the time |
| 2008 | Mobile Phone | Lost — phone was cancelled |
| 2008 | Mobile Phone | Stolen — phone was cancelled |
The details in relation to the bodies under the remit of my Department are listed in the following tables.
| State Laboratory | ||
| Year | Item | Circumstances |
| 2007 | One Computer | Stolen — This PC was used for presentations only and did not contain any confidential Information. The Laboratory are currently putting in place a system of securing all computers. |
| Public Appointments Service | ||
| Year | Item | Circumstances |
| 2007/2008 | 3 laptops | Stolen or lost in various circumstances. Each of the laptops had full disk encryption and was used for intermittent training and presentation purposes and contained no personal or corporate data. Investigations are continuing in each case as to how the items were mislaid or stolen. All laptops are now secured to furniture whenever practical and possible. |
| Office of the Revenue Commissioners | ||
| Year | Item | Circumstances |
| 2007 | HP Laptop | The Laptop was stolen from the Revenue Training Branch in D'Olier House. The theft was reported to the Gardaí. |
| 2008 | A Dell Laptop | The Laptop was stolen during a break-in to the Revenue Offices in Castlebar in June 2008. The theft was reported to the Gardaí. |
| 2008 | A Dell Latitude Notebook | This was stolen from St.John's House Tallaght in November 2008. This item was recovered by the Gardaí |
It should be noted that the Office of the Revenue Commissioners have advised that while a small number of laptops/notebooks were stolen from Revenue, this did not result in the compromising of the confidential, personal information of members of the public. As a further security measure, Revenue has rolled out security encryption software on all of its laptops and similar devices. This measure prevents any data held from being extracted in the event of theft or loss.
| Office of Public Works | ||
| Year | Item | Circumstances |
| 2007/08 | Three Blackberry Devices | One was stolen and reported to the Gardaí and two were reported lost. When the Organisation Unit in the Office of Public Works (OPW) was notified of the fact, the information held on these devices was wiped remotely. |
| 2007/08 | Ten mobile Phones | Reported lost or stolen. Eight were lost, two were stolen outside of work hours and reported to the Gardaí. The SIM cards on these devices were blocked. |
| 2007/08 | Two laptops | Reported stolen from OPW offices, one in Dublin and one in Brú na Boinne. Both of these cases were reported to the Gardaí. It should be noted that all of these laptops were password protected and any information contained on them would not have been readily accessible. None of these devices have been recovered. |
| 2008 | One painting | In regard to art works, paintings and sculptures one painting has been listed as officially stolen since 2007. The painting is by Peter Knuttel. It is an oil on canvas. The painting went missing from the reception of the offices of the Pensions Ombudsman on Mount Street between the dates of 15 to 29 September 2008. The loss was reported to An Garda Síochána by the office of the Pensions Ombudsman. Its current market value is c. €1,500. CCTV footage was examined but did not lead to any evidence of the theft. An image of the painting has been circulated to city centre galleries by An Garda Síochána. |
| National Treasury Management Agency | ||
| Year | Item | Circumstances |
| 2007/08 | Four Blackberries | Two lost and two stolen. All items were fully secured in line with best practice with no loss of data. All NTMA BlackBerry devices are password protected — the devices will erase all data and restore to factory default settings if a password is entered incorrectly. |
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