Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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225. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she and any Minister of State under her Department use a personal e-mail account for work purposes; the security controls that are in place relating to the use of personal e-mail accounts for Department related business; if her Department has a policy on this matter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5248/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As I advised the House in my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 392 of 13 December last, official email business in my role as Minister is conducted via Department and Oireachtas email accounts. On occasion, when outside the office, I make use of a private g-mail account on my mobile phone to forward information of a non-sensitive nature to my private office, generally relating to diary appointments or constituency matters.

Both of the Ministers of State in my Department have confirmed that they only use their Oireachtas and Department e-mail addresses for official business and do not use personal e-mail accounts for business purposes. For completeness, Minister of State Kyne has indicated that he occasionally receives e-mail correspondence from constituents on a personal e-mail account which goes back to his time on Galway County Council and that, very occasionally, when out of the office, he would access information such as constituency issues, appointments and draft press releases, on this email account.

My Department operates an Acceptable Usage Policy in relation to the use of ICT equipment. This policy does not specifically preclude the use of personal email accounts for official purposes.