Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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154. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 104 of 27 May 2014, if he will provide full details of the occasions on which officials in his Department used non-departmental e-mail addresses, telephone numbers or other methods of communication for departmental business; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24163/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As referred to in Parliamentary Question No. 104 of 27 May 2014, the Department's Information and Communications Technology Usage Policy implicitly prohibits the use of non-departmental email addresses to circumvent the terms of the policy. The use of non departmental phones for departmental business is not prohibited.

The Department does use filtering software to monitor compliance with certain aspects of the policy, but this software does not provide the facility to differentiate messages, issued from departmental email addresses, related to department business from those of a personal or private nature. As the Web Browsing Filtering software does not extend to non-departmental equipment or infrastructure, it is not possible to monitor or log emails or other methods of communications used by staff on public or home based devices or networks.

Similarly, in relation to phone usage, the Department's monitoring practices do not differentiate communication related to department business from those of a personal or private nature.