Departmental Communications

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 January 2018

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Questions (294)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

294. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his Department uses anti-profanity software on its email systems and online contact forms; if so, the level of human oversight that is applied to the monitoring of this software and its effectiveness; his views on whether persons' legitimate right to petition Government may be blocked unintentionally by errors in the use of such software in determining that which qualifies as profanity being communicated in email and/or online contact forms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2091/18]

Written answers

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform

My Department has in place an industry leading email security appliance which filters emails based on industry standard security terminology which includes Profanities.  All incoming emails are automatically scanned by the email security appliance for terminology, including profanities, and if positive the email is quarantined and the recipient is notified that their email has been quarantined.  If the recipient believes the email to be business related or quarantined in error they will contact the Service Desk stating this and the email will be released to the recipient.  The email filtering is reviewed and updated based on updated dictionaries and email statistics to keep the solution current.  The Departments online contact forms are routed through its email appliance and is supported by the same functionality in relation to profanity.  As emails are not blocked, but rather quarantined, a persons' legitimate right to petition government will not be blocked unintentionally by the email security appliance in determining that which qualifies as profanity.