Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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950. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she and or her special advisers and or officials use or have used services (details supplied) to communicate in the past 18 months. [43076/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, with the move to remote working as a result of COVID-19, in line with Government guidelines, there has been an expansion in the availability and use of services which provide for modern and secure communications between individuals and teams.

My Department is no different in that respect from other large organisations with a need for secure communications and I can confirm that one of the services referred to by the Deputy is used on occasion by my Department.

Importantly however, I can confirm that the use of this or any other service does not interfere in any way with the obligation to maintain appropriate records of Department business in accordance with the statutory obligations set out in the National Archives and Freedom of Information Acts, which my Department fully adheres to.

I have not used the applications referred to by the Deputy to transact government business by text message.