Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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359. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she and any Minister of State under her Department use a personal e-mail account for work purposes; the security controls 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. [5257/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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ICT provision is made by my Department for the official business of Ministers to be conducted through official email accounts, and equipment is provided with appropriate security protocols to enable confidentiality to be maintained to the best standards possible and insofar as is possible within a challenging technological environment. Non-Departmental email accounts are not generally accessible from the Department's network. My Department does not generally provide access to personal email services from its network, and Departmental computers are blocked from accessing such services. In very limited cases exceptions can be made by my Department where there is a valid business reason.

There is no set policy in place regarding use of personal accounts for official business by members of Government but this is currently under review. Whilst I have on occasion in the past used my personal email account for non-sensitive correspondence, my official business is done through official email accounts. Neither of the Ministers of State assigned to my Department uses a personal email account for work purposes. Finally, there would, of course, be email traffic between each Minister’s Oireachtas email account and his or her “DJEI” email account as a matter of routine.