Second home details made public in error

Offaly County Council has apologised to hundreds of people after their ownership of a second home was made public.

The council issued the apology to 650 people from the county after the details were sent out by error in an email.

The Data Protection Commissioner has already received complaints from members of the public.

They were sent a reminder about the payment deadline for a €200 annual charge on non-principal private residences.

However, the email was sent to 'at least' 650 people with the email addresses of all 650 people clearly visible to each person.

A spokesperson for the Data Protection Commission said that they have sought a full report from the county council.

They want to know how the error occurred and what measures have been put in place to prevent a re-occurence.

The DPC said they had dealt with a similar incident when a technical error involved 200 such identities being revealed by Cork County Council.

It is understood all those affected have received apologies from the two county councils.

Offaly County Council said: "Unfortunately due to human error the email addresses were inserted in the 'To' field rather than the 'Bcc' field. This meant that all email addresses were visible to all recipients and this was not our intention.

'No financial or individual property details were disclosed in the email. The purpose of the email was to remind property owners of the payment deadline.

'Offaly County Council wishes to apologise for the disclosure of the email addresses of all recipients in the email.

'We regret any inconvenience or upset caused as a result of the above. This apology has been circulated to all recipients of the original email.'

The DPC said it became aware of the error by Offaly County Council when it received a complaint from a recipient of the email last night.

It said the errors are frustrating given the large amount of consultation that took place between it and local authorities in advance of the issues arising.