A full review of the security measures in place to protect personal information given to State agencies is needed, the Dáil was told today.
The Labour leader Eamon Gilmore made his comments after the details of over 171,000 blood donors were lost when an Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) computer was stolen in New York.
The laptop was stolen on February 7th when a New York Blood Centre staff member was mugged. He had the records of Irish donors on his laptop because the New York centre is customising a software programme it developed to meet the needs of the Irish blood service.
Mr Gilmore said that while the IBTS theft seems to be "incredibly sloppy" concerns have arisen about the security of personal data.
He called on the Taoiseach to ask the data protection commissioner to undertake an audit of the security procedures and measures in place protecting personal information given by the public to state agencies and Government bodies.
Mr Gilmore said the IBTS theft was not a "one-off" but that "more than 80 laptops, desktops or Blackberries have been stolen or lost from Government departments over the course of the last 5 years."
He said that the overview of the security is needed to protect people's information so that the "dangers associated with data theft are minimised" and to ensure the "continuing confidence in the blood bank".
Some 171,324 Irish donor records and 3,294 patient blood-group records were on the laptop. The donor records include details such as name, address, date of birth, gender, blood group and contact phone number. The records on the laptop included any donor details that were updated between July 2nd and October 11th, 2007.
The IBTS said that while records were securely encrypted on the computer, there was a "remote" chance the data might be accessed by a third party.
It said it was notified of the theft the day after it happened and it informed the Data Protection Commissioner of what happened on February 11th.
Donors who are concerned can contact the IBTS information line on 1850 731 137.
Meanwhiole Fine Gael's Simon Coveney called for a data security policy to be implemented across all Government Departments and agencies to prevent future losses of personal data.
Mr Coveney said: "In the absence of a clear whole-Government policy on data security, it was only a matter of time before one of them contained sensitive personal information.
"It is crucial to have in place very clear procedures across the entire Government to ensure that, where human error does occur, it does not result in the compromise of personal data," he added.
