The actual incident only became known two weeks ago, however the Limerick Independent has learned that several Limerick citizens are affected, after Limerick TD, Niall Collins, said he had been inundated with calls from worried locals.

The personal information of 380,000 social welfare recipients was lost in what the Data Protection Commissioner described as a “serious incident”.

Among the details on the laptop included information such as the name and address of the individual, their PPS number, date of birth, marital status and other personal information.

“However, this obviously does not address the concerns of the large number of County Limerick citizens whose details were included on the stolen laptop,” he told the Limerick Independent.

“I would urge anyone who is worried to contact the Department’s helpline on 1800-690-590.  I am also available to help anyone who has concerns,” Deputy Collins said.

“From what I can gather the information does not seem to have been used maliciously but I would also encourage those people who were affected by this stolen laptop issue to keep a very close eye out for any suspicious mail or other activity. If they were to receive such information they should immediately contact the Department,” Deputy Collins said.

The information lost was contained on a laptop which was reported as stolen from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in April 2007.

The stolen data related mostly to the records of pensioners receiving benefits, which was reported to Gardaí and to the Department of Social and Family Affairs at the time.

About a quarter of those affected were having payments made directly through their bank accounts, and the department says it is immediately contacting those people.

Over the next few weeks it will write to all others who have been affected.

The C&AG says payroll details of staff at seven public bodies were contained in two other stolen laptops.

In all 16 laptops have been stolen from the office over the last 10 years.

Minister Mary Hanafin said in a statement that bank details were contained in 100,000 of the files and that she was concerned that such information would be put on a laptop in a readable form and also that 15 months elapsed before her Department was informed last week of the details of the stolen files.

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