Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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408. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will ensure that computer equipment being used by a group (details supplied) which is due to close shortly can be repurposed within the local community; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2971/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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While the Deputy's proposal is laudable, but she will be aware that my Department handles huge volumes of personal data and that the protection of this data is paramount. When a contract with a Job Club comes to an end all assets must be returned to the Department and this may include IT equipment such as PC desktops, laptops, etc. which have been used to provide the service. In line with contract requirements and Data Protection Laws, my Department must ensure that all client data is deleted and erased from these devices.

My Department’s Data Protection responsibilities requires the destruction of hard drives from all PCs and laptops that are decommissioned. All software on the Department's PCs and laptops are licensed under contract and cannot be transferred.

The returned IT equipment, which may include obsolete PC desktops and laptops, are of little value once the hard drive and the software operating system, is removed as all that remains is a stripped out shell. It would therefore be cost prohibitive for any organisation to try to return these shells to an operational state.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.