Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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228. To ask the Minister for Finance with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, if any comments were in the comments field or elsewhere on the tracking file system for these two documents; and if so what those comments were. [4318/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The tracking system included the following comments in relation to the letter from Mr Burrows to Noel M Corcoran & Associates dated 28^th January 2009:

Letter dated 28/01/2009 received from Richard Burrows, BOI  addressed to  Noel M Corcoran and Associates, Taxation Consultants and copied to the Minister for Finance- content of his letter as follows:"Dear Mr Cocoran,

Thank you for your letter of 27 January and for meeting  today with our advisor, Tom Godfrey of IBI. As I have  explained  to you we believe  that  Bank of Ireland has an  independent  future and that the best  interests of our stockholders lie in the Bank remaining independent and being in a position to  make a recovery  when market  conditions  improve over  time . In the circumstances we are not contemplating the cession  of control  to a new investor at this time. It is very clear that your proposal would require an immediate surrender of control to Jupiter together with further dilution as preference convert to equity. Thank you for bringing  the proposal to us. We have concluded that there is no point in continuing engagement with Jupiter Group.''

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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229. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 228 of 21 January 2014, with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, if any additional controls were in place for these two documents; and if so, if he will outline these controls. [4319/14]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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230. To ask the Minister for Finance with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, the section in his Department these documents were registered to; if the documents were specified as only to be seen by that section; and if any other restrictions were placed on access to the documents. [4320/14]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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231. To ask the Minister for Finance with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, the number of personnel in the section of his Department in which they were held who would have had access to the documents. [4321/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 229 to 231, inclusive, together.

All officials in the department are subject to the official secret act, and routinely handle documents of a confidential or sensitive nature. In this case, documents concerned related to correspondence between two third parties, which had been copied to the Minister and subsequently passed to the appropriate officials, which is the normal treatment of such documentation. The correspondence was captured on the Ministerial representation tracking system.

As the correspondence related to Bank of Ireland, the documents would have been retained in the Banking Division of the Department. As the Deputy would be aware many officials in the department handle a lot of sensitive and confidential information in their daily work and are bound by the terms of the Official Secrets Act. They are also requirements for officials in terms of record maintenance under the record management guidelines of the department.

As the Deputy will appreciate the letters in question were received in 2009. The number of personnel in the division would have varied from time to time since that date given changes in functions and personnel to deal with the banking crisis. It would not be possible to indicate the exact number of personnel who would have access to these letters over the time since they were received. 

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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232. To ask the Minister for Finance with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, if he will provide further details on the efforts being made to locate the originals of the two documents. [4322/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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A comprehensive exercise was undertaken response to location the documentation prior to the December response. The department is continuing in its efforts to locate the two letters, including repeating some of the original searches, and extending it to other areas of the department.