Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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553. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if Ministers, ministerial advisers or officials in her Department have ever used private email to communicate on departmental issues between one another or with other persons or organisations; if so, the reason; if so, if she will publish these emails; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38562/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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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.

Minister of State Joe McHugh has confirmed that only Oireachtas and Department e-mail addresses are used for official business and that no personal e-mail accounts are used for business purposes. Very occasionally, when out of the office, he would access information such as constituency issues, appointments and draft press releases on his email account.

All official business carried out by Ministerial Advisers and officials in my Department is conducted via Department email accounts.

For completeness, I would advise the Deputy that, while 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.