GOVERNMENT MINISTERS may be acting unlawfully because of the failure to protect the confidential personal details of newly unemployed social welfare applicants, it has been claimed in the Dáil.

Labour communications spokeswoman Liz McManus said private and confidential information about constituents who cannot have their social welfare claims processed “is being circulated like snuff at a wake”.

She told the House that confidential letters sent to the Minister for Social Protection by Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin had been sent to her. She also said letters she sent to the same Minister had been returned to former minister John McGuinness.

Ms McManus spoke as a number of TDs highlighted the ongoing problems for people who lost their jobs in having their social welfare applications processed. Fine Gael social protection spokeswoman Olwyn Enright asked what contingency plans were in place if social welfare offices close as part of the continuing public sector go-slow. There were “already massive backlogs of applications in social welfare offices”. One constituent applied for the “family income supplement in December and has not even been assigned to an inspector”.

Labour’s Seán Sherlock said hundreds of people in his Cork East constituency “literally do not have a bob to their name at the moment to be able to feed their families. This is the penury that we are putting these people through.”

He said many efforts to raise the issue had been stymied. Ceann Comhairle Séamus Kirk repeatedly said there were a number of ways to raise the issue.

Ms McManus said “there is a real danger that the Minister is acting unlawfully” under data protection legislation because of the circulation of private details.

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said correspondence that should have been retained on the department’s files “has been returned to me in its entirety”.

Fine Gael’s Bernard Durkan said there was “no accountability” in the House. The Ceann Comhairle threatened to suspend him when he repeatedly intervened on the issue. The Kildare North TD said he was “leaving in protest”.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív can be approached by any member of the House “on any occasion”. Ms Enright said “there are thousands of these cases” and Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton pointed out that the Minister “cannot be everywhere at once”.