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THE ‘ADMINISTRATIVE ERROR’ that led to false sex-abuse allegations against Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe was not reported as a data protection breach, as required by protocol.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) claimed last weekend that the error had been brought to the attention of its Regional Manager for Data Protection and Consumer Affairs when it was discovered in May 2014.
However, records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the incident was not listed among 103 data-protection breaches reported within the agency between April 2014 and April 2015.
These breaches included cases of medical notes being sent to the wrong patients, a Tusla report being attached to an information booklet and posted by mistake, and a patient’s chart being left on a garden wall.
But the incident in which a ‘copy-and-paste’ error resulted in false accusations of sexual abuse against Sergeant McCabe being held on file and shared with other agencies is not recorded on the HSE’s data-breach log.
Data protection laws place an obligation on organisations to ensure that personal information contained in their records is “accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date”.
The Data Protection Commissioner has held that this obligation is heightened in the case of data that “has potential to reflect on an individual’s personal character in a profound manner”.
HSE Data Protection Breach Management Policy requires all relevant incidents to be reported to Consumer Affairs or the ICT Directorate, and for an incident report to be completed by staff.
The local consumer affairs officer subsequently decides whether it is necessary to report suspected breaches to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
Sensitive information
A record of all such incidents between April 2014 and April 2015 contains details of 103 suspected breaches, including a case in which patient files were discovered by a member of the public in the drawer of a filing cabinet in a second-hand furniture shop.
In another case, a diary containing sensitive client information was misplaced by a community services worker in Sligo, but was later found on the roof of her car.
The HSE has stated that a counsellor working with the National Counselling Service made the ‘administrative error’ in 2013 involving a file that was shared with Tusla, the child and family agency, and An Garda Síochána.
They discovered the mistake on 7 May 2014 and alerted both of the other agencies, issuing them with a corrected report. The error has given rise to a major political controversy.
The HSE declined to comment on the FOI.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that a tribunal will take place to look into the allegations of a smear against Maurice McCabe.
A criminal investigation is needed here not a tribunal where everyone walks Away with their pension and a smile on their faces. If they can lock up a teenager for stopping a TD from getting out of a car surly there has to be justice for this poor man
@David Saunders:@David Saunders: Most especially the pensions. That’s where they are most vulnerable.
@David Saunders: You are right. The law requires a criminal investigation
@David Saunders: I happen to know that there are serious allegations about you in terms of child abuse and paedophilia and frankly I think these claims have not been properly investigated. As such, I think any statement you make about anything cannot be accepted at face value…
Oh sorry David, I accidentally copied and pasted very serious allegations about you into my answer to your post. A complete accident, sure it could happen to anybody. I am sure you will be willing to just accept a weak apology and let the whole matter drop?
If it walks like duck, has feathers, and some guy is shooting at it with a springer spaniel on tow, it’s a duck.
It wasn’t an error, it was a blatant campaign to smear a top whistleblower perpetrated by the Gadaí and government.
The “robber” and the Government!!!!
@Les Behan: that’s the best capture all comment that I have read on this.
The running for cover by the Taoiseach and Tanaiste confirms the political dimension.
Just wondering if anyone who is a direct target of this investigation still has full access to records and data associated with it
BUUUUUULLLLLLLSHIIIIITTTTTT!
Lies,lies,lies,lies,lies…who’s going to lose their job about this? Did Kenny know about this or did he or his officials even check this out? And why wasn’t it reported? Because it never fkn happened is why…the whole lie fabricated is unravelling but so what…nobody is going to go and nobody will pay any k I’d of price. Nothing but nothing is to be believed from the government.
It was like this when I got here !!!
I would expect that someone who pasted in such a serious charge would identify themselves publicly and admit their mistake perhaps explaining what exactly happened. It defies belief that someone would cut such a serious charge from some other file and paste it into someone else’s …
Hold on, I’m losing count now. Was it 7 inexcusable ‘coincidences’ ago, or 8 inexcusable ‘coincidences’ ago, that the official story behind this debacle lost all credibility??
@For Connolly: It’s coming out in drip feed so it’s difficult to join the dots.
What surprises me is how badly they play this Machiavellian game. They are even incompetent in their own corruption. It’s one thing being bad, its another to be bad and stupid.
@For Connolly:
I watched the debate last night. It was inexcusable the way the government were let off the hook by your lot. Your elected representatives were useless. Kenny and Fitzgerald were on the ropes Body language, stuttering, mumbling, preparing the answers between one another and your lot could not get it together for the killer blow.
God knows your lot have doled out enough of those in the past but last night they were more than useless. That’s the party you really belong to not the AAA/PBP you claim you voted for.
@Alan Cooke: so its either sf or aaa, pbp fault ff supports fg at every turn? says more than think, very insightful thanks
Can any of them tell the truth about anything?
I can smell the lies from here. Bullshit article
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: Weird that it seems point-by-point and doesn’t have an author attributed alright.
Maybe because it wasn’t an admin error.. just an idea, thought. Be hard to report it as a breach when it wasn’t..
The amount of support that Maurice McCabe, is receiving from his colleagues is truly amazing their must of been at least 100 garda outside Leinster house yesterday demanding a criminal investigation for him and now they organising a March to garda HQ well done everyone involved great to see such support…
@Martin Ryan: It really is one thing to destroy someones career but when that doesn’t work to try an accuse him of been a child abuse, really is the lowest of the low. I am surprised the lot of AGS are not marching on the Dail/HQ, it’s making the Gardai look like a holy show.
Ireland at the top is a free for all. Do what you like, what ever the actions and still walk away with pension and pay. Madness. Imagine this in any normal job.
we as parents have been fighting for our daughter the last 16 months with tusla. we were in contact with ministers fitzgerald and zappone, but they totally ignored us. we elected these people into power yet they have no consideration for the public. minister fitzgerald needs to put a stop to this tusla corruption as we have seen first hand, how corrupt this organisation really is
@Anita Murphy: Are you the parents or grandparents in this case. If you are the grandparents and not direct foster carers of the children then Tusla are not obliged to deal with you and could be sued by your daughter if they disclosed any confidential information to you. I would imagine that Tusla are inundated with enquiries from parties that are not directly entitled to the confidential information they seek.
This was a smear campaign orchestrated by Garda Management and aided by their accomplices in politics and media. A smear they have used on at least 1 other occasion.
Anyone want to give me evidence to the contrary? No didn’t think so.
@Eamonn: Do they not know, who made the entry and are they still in the job?
@Stephen murphy: I think they know and I understand it was a counsellor who was self employed and working under contract to the HSE at the time, that’s the word on the street.
This couldn’t be the first big case of something like this happening in Ireland or is it? Imagine what else or who else’s careers were destroyed by using the same tactic.
An Eye opener indeed.
We need to be told Exactly how this copy paste error occurred. Has it been outlined already? Did the counsellor have Mc Cabes file and another file open on her desktop at the same time or what?. I’m sceptical. Maybe I’m just stupid but it seems more likely that this was done deliberately right? Is putting copy paste error in inverted commas the most that journalists can do to highlight this. If so boo. But maybe I’m just crazy
Done deliberately right!?
@Alanine Pipeline: copy and paste from where?
What standard document that could be copied/pasted could possibly exist. Is there another mccabe out there under the same investigation at the same time under similar circumstances. No, didn’t think so
Anyone remember the Children’s Referendum five years ago? Some of us opposed it on the ground that the constitutional problem was a myth. The problem was always that the Irish government couldn’t be trusted to look after the interests of children. It was, and is, either inept or corrupt, or both.
I don’t expect anyone will apologise, but maybe next time the Irish state wants to extend its powers, we can remember this episode rather than dismissing the doubters as religious nuts, libertarian cranks and anti vulnerable groups.
To me the fact that politicians are ignoring all the calls for a criminal investigation and just using the tin can of a tribunal means the obvious. Ordinary citizens should get out to support the Gardai calling for criminal proceedings on this one. It seems to MSM are not too keen either to upset their masters, especially RTE.
Nobody ever really tusted the garda. People just hoped not to get on their radar. Thank God we have tusla looking after children, would be better off handing it back to the men in black dresses.
rodten – ‘men in black dresses’…our catholic clergy who educated most of these clowns?
This case is getting very disturbing,and more disturbing is no one will be held to account,no consequences.
How did one man manage to cause so many “mistakes” by so many others?
Oh how when the officials and the politicians practice to deceive, what a tangled Web of chicanery they weave.
I can’t see any innocent mistake in this.
So many different agencies and actions involved.
Who would have had the status, influence and power to ensure that all of these agencies of State coordinated so neatly and seamlessly together in a single objective to destroy one man, Sergeant McCabe? Who could have put all of the separate pieces together?
Who coordinated the different senior ranking Garda telling John Deasy, John McGuiness, Vincent Brown and Mary Lynch amongst others.
Not much detective work is required.
Name the politicians.
You can tell when Enda lies..his lips move!
There’s more to this than meets the eye.
I ave a feeling this is going to go on for a while.
I smell a rat pardon the pun….!!!!
It is crucially important that the involvement of the FG Government with Callinan’s efforts to discredit Sergeant MCabe and continued by his hatchet woman, Noirin O’Sullivan is fully and thoroughly examined.
Kenny, Shatter and Fitzgerald are up to their necks in the malfeasance by An Garda Siochana.
What are the lies, please?
@Alanine Pipeline: did you even read the article. Clearly says The Health Service Executive (HSE) claimed last weekend that the error had been brought to the attention of its Regional Manager for Data Protection and Consumer Affairs when it was discovered in May 2014.
Article then says.
However, records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the incident was not listed among 103 data-protection breaches reported within the agency between April 2014 and April 2015
So what’s that then???
THE ‘ADMINISTRATIVE ERROR’ that led to false sex-abuse allegations against Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe was not reported as a data protection breach, as required by protocol.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) claimed last weekend that the error had been brought to the attention of its Regional Manager for Data Protection and Consumer Affairs when it was discovered in May 2014.
However, records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the incident was not listed among 103 data-protection breaches reported within the agency between April 2014 and April 2015.
Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the HSE lied last weekend……
Thanks Littleone – time doesn’t allow me to follow in detail.
@LITTLEONE: Tusla is an agency of the HSE. If the data went from the HSE to Tusla then perhaps it was considered to have stayed within the organisation so not really a breach, just a thought from an objective perspective!
It doesn’t have to leave the organisation, Larry. S2(i)(b) of the Act places an obligation to ensure data held is accurate and up to date. Failure to do this is a breach, regardless of whether the data is communicated to another body.
Ahh sure it was a clear mistake then
Ahh I see…it was all a clear mistake then
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