The Irish Government has not paid any ransom to hackers involved in the ransomware attack on the health system, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said.
A decryption key was made available on Thursday evening almost one week after the IT system was attacked and is being tested to ensure its validity.
Speaking on RTE Radio One, Mr Donnelly said: "Categorically, no ransom has been paid by this Government directly, indirectly, through any third party or in any other way. Nor will any such ransom be paid."
The minister told the station's Morning Ireland programme it was "unclear" why the decryption key was being made available and that it "came as a surprise".
He added that there could be "any number of reasons" behind the move, and it would not be useful for him to speculate.
The fact that the decryption key was made available online confused many as Taoiseach Micheal Martin and the government have insisted that they will not pay the ransom to the hackers.
The Minister said that there could be any number of reasons as to why the key was provided to the government ahead of the ransom deadline, and refused to speculate further.
"We are taking the threat very seriously.
"There obviously have been redacted pieces of information put up and made available on the dark web.
"As it is an ongoing criminal investigation, we can't confirm if the records are genuine, however, as people will be aware, it is entirely possible.
"This sort of approach is quite standard procedure in these kind of attacks."
Minister Donnelly also told people that if they are contacted by someone pretending to be from the HSE about their confidential information, to call the gardai on 1 800 666 111.
