THE DEPARTMENT of Foreign Affairs refused to provide the personal details of Irish citizens marrying abroad after they were sought by the Department of Social Protection as part of its investigations into welfare fraud.
Official documents obtained by The Irish Timesshow welfare officials contacted consular staff last March seeking information on Irish citizens applying for leave to marry outside the State, saying the information was for "the purpose of the prevention of fraud in social welfare payments".
Consular staff, concerned about the nature of the request, then contacted the Data Protection Commissioner to seek his views and they subsequently refused to hand over the details.
The request triggered concern about how the Department of Social Protection accesses details on hundreds of thousands of individuals from other public bodies and about the scale of its operation to match their data to its payment schemes.
Until the request to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the commissioner had not been aware of the scale of the so-called “data matching” being carried out by the Department of Social Protection, under a legislative provision in the Social Welfare Acts.
Publishing his annual report earlier this year, Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes expressed concern that the State was using “draconian” powers to access personal data inappropriately.
He acknowledged there was a “huge focus” on preventing fraud because of the State’s budgetary situation and said it was important that there be proper investigation to clamp down on such fraud. However, he was concerned the department was accessing personal information provided to other bodies for a completely different purpose with “no constraint”.
His office has been in talks with the Department of Social Protection to find a “shared view” on how data can be accessed and used.
Some €484 million in savings was made in welfare schemes last year, of which the department attributed a “substantial” component to its data requests from other public bodies. It said the information requests were “a vital tool” in targeting welfare fraud.
Deputy Data Protection Commissioner Gary Davis said his office was engaged in “constructive” discussions with the Department of Social Protection on the use of its “strong powers” to seek personal information from public bodies to identify welfare fraud.
“Those discussions are predicated on the basis that the department is anxious to use this power in a manner that is compliant with its data protection obligations but also its public policy obligation to tackle welfare fraud.”