Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 January 2014
229. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 228 of 21 January 2014, with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, if any additional controls were in place for these two documents; and if so, if he will outline these controls. [4319/14]
View answer230. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, the section in his Department these documents were registered to; if the documents were specified as only to be seen by that section; and if any other restrictions were placed on access to the documents. [4320/14]
View answer231. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance with regard to the two missing documents from FOI 176/2013, the number of personnel in the section of his Department in which they were held who would have had access to the documents. [4321/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 229 to 231, inclusive, together.
All officials in the department are subject to the official secret act, and routinely handle documents of a confidential or sensitive nature. In this case, documents concerned related to correspondence between two third parties, which had been copied to the Minister and subsequently passed to the appropriate officials, which is the normal treatment of such documentation. The correspondence was captured on the Ministerial representation tracking system.
As the correspondence related to Bank of Ireland, the documents would have been retained in the Banking Division of the Department. As the Deputy would be aware many officials in the department handle a lot of sensitive and confidential information in their daily work and are bound by the terms of the Official Secrets Act. They are also requirements for officials in terms of record maintenance under the record management guidelines of the department.
As the Deputy will appreciate the letters in question were received in 2009. The number of personnel in the division would have varied from time to time since that date given changes in functions and personnel to deal with the banking crisis. It would not be possible to indicate the exact number of personnel who would have access to these letters over the time since they were received.
