PRIVATE investigators operate in a shady world.

Sometimes they are literally in the shadows, carrying out surveillance on their subjects.

That is common and legitimate work frequently done for insurance companies.

A claimant, for instance, is alleging grave injuries. He claims the injuries have severely curtailed his mobility. A PI follows him for three days and observes the claimant playing football or ballet dancing. The claimant is in trouble.

PI work also involves assembling information. If a claimant has a history of claiming, that could become relevant, even in the early stages of an action.

Equally relevant might be the social welfare record of a claimant, particularly if he or she claimed welfare following a previous actual or alleged accident.

In fact, access to social welfare records is vital in assembling a picture of somebody. The records contain bank accounts, previous employment, a wife's maiden name, children's names, PPS numbers. A fairly complete picture of an individual can be compiled from social welfare records.

Obtaining such records legally is difficult. Apart from certain specific instances, social welfare records are protected under the data protection acts of 1988 and 2003.

According to files seen by the Sunday Tribune, private investigators routinely acquire the social welfare records of individuals and pass these details on to insurance companies. If the records are obtained without the subject's consent, this is illegal, subject to limited exceptions. Keeping the records is also illegal as it comes under "processing" the information, as set out in the act.

Reporting on activities James Cowley & Associates in Swords, which advertises itself as "insurance, accident, claims investigators", reported on two brothers for a firm of Dublin solicitors in a document dated 4 September 2004. The instructions were to "carry out a claims and work history report on the subjects and also place them under surveillance, reporting on their current activities".

In the body of the report it is stated:

"I carried out a criminal record check on X [and it] confirmed that he has six criminal convictions." And further on:

"He was on unemployment assistance from the 7/9/01 to the 27/2/02. He has had a number of unemployment and disability payments made to him. He has been in receipt of disability payments continuously since the accident, mostly paid by the health board."

When contacted, Cowley said the criminal history would have been provided by a court clerk. "You can write to a court clerk and get that, " he said. The social welfare information, he said, could have come from a statement of claim.

"Absolutely nothing was done contrary to data protection, " he said.

Protocol Security Services is based in Dunshaughlin, Co Meath. In an investigation report dated 8 November 2005, the personal details of a female subject were outlined. These included the woman's work history going back nine years and social welfare claims by the woman from 2000 to 2005. When contacted at the PI firm's office a woman . . .

whose first name appears on the report . . . answered. After the nature of the call was explained, she politely said somebody would get back with an answer to the inquiry as to how their firm came across these details. Nobody came back with a response.

CIA is the acronym for Confidential Investigations Athlone, which compiled a report for a firm of Westmeath solicitors, who in turn were acting for an insurance company. In a report dated 18 August 2000, CIA outlined the social welfare history of the subject, including welfare contributions to a private pension, to a Bord na Mona pension and disability benefit contributions. When contacted, CIA director Peter Dempsey said, "That would have been given to me on the file." When asked what exactly that statement meant, the line unfortunately went dead. Dempsey was uncontactable for the rest of the day.

John Courtney used to be a chief superintendent in the gardai, including a spell in the murder squad. Under a firm called T & G Courtney Security Services Ltd, he investigated a woman who was suing the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland. The report, compiled for a solicitor's firm, included the detail that "social welfare files record her as being employed with Irish Life Assurance Ltd". He also stated: "X has no previous convictions recorded against her."

When contacted, former chief superintendent Courtney said he had no comment to make on any report he compiled.

Abbey Investigations is based in Dungarvan, Co Waterford. Its principal, Declan Clarke, compiled a report nine years ago which included social welfare details of a man living in Co Tipperary. When contacted, Clarke said he never paid attention to social welfare information, that his business was mainly photographs and videos.

'We don't work like that' "We never got information in an improper way, " Clarke said. "I know there are people up the country paying big money to get it done, but we don't work like that."

The foregoing is a typical sample of the files seen by the Sunday Tribune.

There is no reason to believe that the PI companies mentioned are operating any differently to most of their competitors.

Inquiries in the industry point to a culture of acquiring social welfare information routinely and garda information slightly less frequently. In nearly all instances it is rare that such information is acquired with the subject's consent.

Whether this information gathering, processing and retaining is legal is a matter that the data commissioner will have to decide.