Probe urged into leak of benefit details

A FIANNA FÁIL senator has urged the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate how private details of a family in receipt of social welfare benefits were leaked to a fellow senator.

Senator Byrne raised the issue in the Seanad after newspaper reports outlining the full details of payments allocated to one particular family, along with personal details about members of that family.

On Tuesday, Labour Senator Jimmy Harte called for a cap on social welfare of €50,000 after it emerged that a couple in Dublin with four children was claiming over €90,000 a year.

The unemployed married couple, who have four children and are originally from Bosnia, claim a range of welfare benefits and are being paid €1,763 per week.

Senator Harte claimed the father received a disability allowance of €322; a guardian’s pension for a child taken in of €286; rent supplement of €276; that the mother had a carer’s allowance of €380; that they received child benefit of €288; and their daughter (17) with special needs was being paid €211.

Senator Byrne lambasted whoever had leaked the documents and accused the Labour Party of politicking.

“If it transpires that these details were leaked by Government officials, it would be gross breach of their duty to protect the privacy of these citizens. It could also be seen as a cynical attempt by the Labour Party to soften the ground for upcoming cuts to social welfare.

“Given this family’s particular situation, I am concerned they will be easily identifiable by the details that have been made public so far. This is highly unfair and totally illegal,” he said.

“While I don’t believe that any family should be in receipt of such large financial support from the state, there is no justification for leaking highly confidential information about private citizens. The requirement to protect the private details of individuals held by Government departments is an extremely serious one.”

Senator Byrne said he has written to the Data Protection Commissioner asking him to investigate this case.

“A person’s private records must remain private and the public must have full confidence in how their information is handled by the authorities. There can be no justification whatsoever for using such sensitive material for party political purposes,” he said.