Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

166. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he plans to correct the statement he made to the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence, on 8 February 2022 (details supplied). [14943/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, like many public representatives I receive text messages and phone calls from phone numbers I do not know, this is often people reaching out to ask for assistance or simply make contact. On December 29th 2021 I was informed that a twitter account was publishing screen grabs of unsolicited text messages being sent to my phone along with commentary on the social media platform. My office and I considered the behaviour quite strange. The posts have since been deleted from social media. I do not know the person or persons behind the twitter account or behind the Irish mobile phone number, I have never contacted them, spoken to them, met them or engaged with them. They and their one-way contact has nothing to do with government or department business. As your question refers to the information commissioner it is important to note that on March 3rd this year the information commissioner found in favour of the Department of Foreign Affairs in an FOI case taken by a party identified as Mr X.

To confirm, I don’t delete any records which relate to Government business.