GDPR jitters and a new-found appreciation for our councillors
IT has been a tough few months for county councillors. As summer holidays’ beckon for most, councillors, always the eager minions of their parties, are not afforded the opportunity to relax. How could they with a General Election right around the corner, or so we are constantly being told. Combine this with their areas being carved up by the Boundary Commission, local elections early next year and party conventions, where futures are decided, there have been many sleepless nights lost.
For years I have been hearing at council meetings about how much councillors’ powers are being diminished by pen pushers in Dublin. The councillor of old had within his or her armoury the ability to, at times, appear god-like. They could intervene in housing and medical matters, represent their clients’ cases and affect real change in the lives of voters. Did this go to some councillors’ heads? Of course it did. Power corrupts afterall. But the vast majority of councillors have always been loyal party members who do their best for their areas and for their constituents.
For time immemorial council chambers have been filled with men, with a few women often the lone voices of reason when the banter died down. Today a move is on to increase the number of female councillors and TDs and this has caused consternation within political parties who are trying to gain a competitive edge over their rivals.
Under the Local Government Bill of 2014 80 town councils were abolished and ever since the complaining has ramped up.
Councillors are now stuck in a half-job, paid €17,800 odd a year plus expenses and if they are lucky allowances for being on call 24/7 like political doctors, counsellors even. One councillor I met recently said he was thinking twice about running next year. ‘I can’t go to Tesco without being mobbed by people. I had a woman lie down in front of my car for not getting her a house.’ The list goes on.
On May 28, their job got a hell of a lot harder. Where once councillors could contact companies or state agencies on behalf of an elderly person, now they are told that they don’t have the power to any more. Two councillors spoke out at a recent meeting about how it has impacted them. In one scenario a councillor had helped an elderly lady set up a phone line. This was pre GDPR. He recently went to cancel the line as she had moved into a nursing home only to be told that she had to do this herself. As she is currently unable to, the tenant in the house has a free landline at her expense.
Branding GDPR as criminal a councillor moved to have it blotted from law and the office of the Data Commissioner will have a letter to this effect later this week.
The one silver lining for councillors is that a review of the role and payments for councillors is under way. To be completed early next year, it may recommend more money as well as access to secretarial and research supports, and assistance with childcare. Also being considered are possible incentives for employers to allow staff take time off for meetings as councillors are docked pay for failing to attend. Local Government Minister John Paul Phelan said it “was necessary to avoid a situation where membership of local authorities could be restricted to the retired, unemployed or the wealthy.’
Let’s hope the Government acts to ensure this can happen.