CIVIL servants snooped on personal data and recklessly passed it on to unknown callers — but they kept their jobs after pleading ignorance.

The Irish Independent has learnt that almost 100 employees in the Department of Social Protection accessed and passed on highly sensitive information, or snooped on their friends, colleagues and well-known personalities.

But despite thousands of records being improperly accessed over the past seven years, not one member of staff has been sacked for their conduct. This is despite them breaching both the Data Protection Act and the department’s own internal rules.