Telecommunications Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 November 2010

Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Ceisteanna (89)

Johnny Brady

Ceist:

124 Deputy Johnny Brady asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills in view of the significant information and other services provided to Internet sites to both the public as well as to staff, the processes, standards or recommendations in place to ensure that the design, development and maintenance of all such sites consistently complies with legislative requirements, technical standards and industry best practice in terms of data protection, security, accessibility and usability. [41993/10]

Freagraí scríofa

Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Mary Coughlan)

Web applications designed, developed and maintained by my Department are done so on the basis of requirements agreed with the user community. These requirements incorporate, where appropriate, legislative requirements, technical standards and data protection, security, accessibility and usability requirements. The web applications are subjected to extensive user acceptance testing before going live to ensure that these requirements have been met. My Department also has a contract in place with an independent security company which provides six-monthly security health checks on all the Department's web applications. In addition, this company provides my Department with advice on data protection issues in respect of these applications.