A GROUP set up to help distressed mortgage holders said the release of personal financial information on 1,000 hard-pressed homeowners to an investment firm was a "mistake".

Ross Maguire, co-founder of New Beginning, accepted people will be "shocked and disappointed" such sensitive information was passed on to a third party.

The details were forwarded to the investment firm Arizun which New Beginning is seeking to partner with.

Mr Maguire said "regretfully an email was sent by mistake" as part of an attempt by New Beginning to try and resolve the problems of householders with distressed mortgages.

He said the information had been communicated to one particular person in the investment fund, whom he has known for some time, and who he fully trusted.

"He confirmed to me it had been deleted from their system," he added.

He said while there was no legal requirement on him to inform the Data Protection authorities about the matter, he acknowledged this should have been done in the light of what had happened.

"I accept at this stage that I ought to have done so - and I apologise for not having done.

"We have made a mistake here. There was nothing deliberate about it. I have to take the blame for that."

With regard to a payment of €20,000 plus VAT, transferred to New Beginning on the same day Arizun received the data, Mr Maguire said this was an acknowledgement his organisation would "have to employ significant resources as part of our preparing this programme".

"They agreed they would make a contribution to the ongoing operations of New Beginning, to include an initial payment of €20,000, and then some payments thereafter," he told RTE's 'This Week' programme.

When asked if this would lead to a perception that this money was payment for supplying a list of names, he replied: "This is simply not the case."

When asked to explain an email which contained the phrase: "Here's the 1,500 names as promised" he replied: "That doesn't sound good from our point of view."

But he insisted it was never intended to provide a list of named persons and their personal financial details.

Irish Independent