Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if any electronic data is stored in a commercially operated data centre. [2789/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I understand that my Department does not store electronic data in a commercially operated data centre. Day to day electronic communications may be routed through various systems, including commercial data systems, while in transit. Specifically, my Department's email communications are routed through a commercial email filtering service which can block potential spam emails and retain them for a period of time until they are either released by the intended recipient or deleted.

In relation to the Offices under the aegis of my Department, I understand that while the majority of electronic data is held internally across my Department's ICT infrastructure, or in shared hosting centres provided by other Departments, some electronic data is held in commercially operated data centres.

The Companies Registration Office uses an external commercial hosting service, in Ireland, to temporarily hold data for their bulk-data customers to download. The data is deleted after a fortnight on an on-going basis.

The Labour Court uses an external commercial hosting service, in Ireland, to host its website including information relating to recommendations in respect of cases referred to the Court under various types of employment legislation.

Both the Companies Registration Office and the Labour Court use ISO27001 certified hosting facilities.

The website of the Employment Appeals Tribunal is hosted in a secured hosting environment also in an Irish data centre. The data is used by the website to publicly list determinations issued by the Tribunal following completion of a hearing. The data is rendered anonymous by the Employment Appeals Tribunal prior to its transfer to the data centre.

Question No. 107 answered with Question No. 105.