Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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138. To ask the Taoiseach if he has used a personal email address for Government business since his appointment, including in an email to a person (details supplied) on 9 July 2017 at 15:38. [13959/18]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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139. To ask the Taoiseach if his senior staff have used personal email addressees for official Government business since his appointment; and the policy in place regarding the use of private non-official email addressees. [13960/18]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 138 and 139 together.

I and the staff working in my Private Office have been assigned official email accounts. These accounts are only accessible through my Department's secure network and, in some circumstances, remotely using officially supplied and appropriately secured mobile devices such as laptop computers or mobile telephones.

My Department's ICT Policy stipulates that where personal email accounts are used for business purposes, due regard must be taken of the sensitivity and confidentiality of the information being transmitted. The Policy further requires that, where personal email accounts are used for business purposes, a copy of any record created must be retained in an appropriate official electronic filing system and/or hard copy file which can be accessed should the record be the subject of a Freedom of Information request.

I and the staff working in my Private Office use our Departmental email accounts for official business. From time to time, a third party may email me or my staff about official business using a personal email address (such as occurred in the instance referenced by the Deputy). In line with my Department's ICT policy, if such correspondence is received, I or my staff copy the reply to Government officials thereby creating a record of the correspondence which can be accessed should it be subject to a Freedom of Information request. Indeed, the correspondence referred to by the Deputy was released in response to a Freedom of Information request.