Taoiseach Enda Kenny has deflected questions that he and Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald broke security protocols by using personal email accounts for sensitive Government-related business.
Mr Kenny was questioned in the Dáil by Opposition leaders about the Government’s strategy on the use of email and the internet.
And when asked if arrangements were in place to prevent his mobile phone being hacked while in the US, Mr Kenny said “I’ll be very careful”.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin referred to a report in The Sunday Times that Mr Kenny had used his personal email 161 times since 2011 for sensitive Government business.
He asked if it was appropriate that Ms Fitzgerald used her personal email account for correspondence with the Attorney General, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and for issues relating to immigration, asylum-seeking cases and judicial investigations.
And he asked if the Taoiseach’s or Tánaiste’s private accounts had been hacked, adding that he was stunned “at the level of material that got out”.
The Taoiseach said however that he had seen headlines indicating matters were so sensitive people were not allowed to see them. “Clearly some items are available under the freedom of information process and some are not.”
He told Mr Martin his private email account pre-dated his time as Taoiseach. “As far as I am aware no particularly sensitive information has been used with that account.”
Mr Kenny said the review of information and communications technology policy of the Department of the Taoiseach had been completed and a “consolidation process” was under way. The use of unofficial email accounts for official purposes “will be included in the policy”.
This will be a “single overarching policy that will be a single point of reference for all staff”.
Personal account
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the Sunday newspaper reported that seven Cabinet Ministers admitted receiving Government-related business on their personal email and that 23 of the 161 times Mr Kenny used his personal account, the material was too sensitive to be released through the freedom of information process.
He asked if Mr Kenny agreed personal accounts should not be used for Government business.
The Taoiseach said all these issues would be dealt with in the “consolidated process” being put in place and clear protocols would apply.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin said that even the most sensitive of documentation controlled by the National Security Agency in the US was subject to hacking and release.
Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said there were many recorded instances of people's devices being hacked when they went to the US, and she asked if special arrangements had been put in place so that Mr Kenny's phone would not be hacked or bugged while he was in the US.
“It could be done by people here anxious to know how the Taoiseach is getting on. Equally it could be people with bad intent,” she said.
Mr Kenny told her “I recall the German chancellor having had her phone hacked and obviously she was very upset about that”, in reference to the revelation that US security services had listened to Angela Merkel’s mobile phone calls.
“There might be other countries that might listen in as well and clearly that’s an issue we need to be cognisant of. I don’t know if any special arrangements are made.
“My old mobile phone is still working anyway and maybe they listen to everything, I don’t know. I’ll be very careful.”
Mr Kenny travels to Washington DC to meet US president Donald Trump and congressional leaders during a two day trip on March 15th and 16th.
