GDPR nightmare before Christmas
ALL councillors want for Christmas is an electronic GDPR consent form to make their work lives more tolerable in 2019.
The ghost of GDPR memos past reared its ugly head, with councillors calling for email consent forms, warning that otherwise they will not be able to help constituents.
Presently councillors have to provide council tenants with a ‘verification form for an elected representative to receive personal data for housing issues’ to act on their behalf.
Cllr George Lawlor said the council’s Corporate Policy Group committee came up with a plan having discussed GDPR at length. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years but it’s causing chaos for councillors. Cllr Lawlor said the way members get consent from voters who need help with housing issues needs to be improved.
‘ This is another example of bureaucracy. With GDPR I am going to various departments with names, addresses, dates of birth, PPS numbers and then am I being asked if I have their consent to talk about their case. It’s ridiculous.’
He called for a general form to be supplied to councillors so they can get consent to handle cases. ‘If not we could be dealing with one person in housing and if there is something wrong we’d have to come back and get another form to get consent to get a window fixed.’
Chairman Cllr Keith Doyle said: ‘We brought this to the Corporate Policy Group meeting where we asked that specific question.’
Cllr Michael Whelan said it’s an overly complicated process. Calling for housing to come back to councillors to update them ‘every step of the way’ on progress and decisions made in housing cases, Cllr Whelan said being told after houses are allocated is too late. ‘We are being driven out of the equation altogether. I have brought people to meet the housing officer and then I found out he has had subsequent meetings with them and I haven’t been informed about what happens.’
Housing officer Padraig O’Gorman said: ‘Once there has been progress on an application you will be notified about what has happened.’
Cllr Whelan said in the past councillors could alert housing officials to the fact a tenant about to be moved into the a house is a potential problem tenant, but they no longer have that power. ‘ The house has been allocated. Even if you could give us the information that the house has been allocated.’
Cllr Willie Kavanagh said someone in a pub told him about a house in his area being allocated, even though he was involved in the case. Cllr Ger Carthy said: ‘We have over 3,000 housing applicants and they have to fill out a change of circumstances form every two years. Why don’t we have an opt out system stating “I hereby consent to an elected member of Wexford County Council to act on my behalf ”. I have never seen such an antiquated form in all my born days,’ he said, calling for the matter to go back to the Special Policy Committee for further discussion. ‘We are too strict and our emphasis is too much on GDPR which is the absolute Bible now and it’s affecting our ability to represent the people.’
County Secretary Pat Collins pointed out that GDPR is European law. Mr O’Gorman said he has looked at a catch-all form solution, but felt it would not stand up to strict legal standards.
He said a national committee is looking at ways to streamline the process.
Cllr Doyle said he wasn’t sure people would like an opt-out whereby any councillor could represent them.
Cllr Lawlor sought clarity on an electronic option. ‘If I was to meet every constituent I represent I would never get out the front door and I know it’s the same for all of the councillors here. People could send a simple email giving consent for George Lawlor to represent him or her because much of our business is done remotely now.’
Cllr David Hynes said: ‘ It’s gone beyond the ridiculous at this stage. We are being strangled with bureaucracy and red tape. I am after sending email after email and making phone call after phone call and the people down the pub know more about what’s happening that me. It’s codology! We are getting nothing done and that is the problem.’
Cllr Tony Dempsey said being a councillor means being relevant to people who mightn’t be able to represent themselves and GDPR is getting in the way of this.
He said the council should write to Minister Richard Bruton telling him as much. CEO Tom Enright said the committee are looking at the electronic means of obtaining consent. ‘Some of this stuff is dictated by Europe and it’s not simple.’
Cllr Willie Fitzharris said the former system worked well, adding that he believes that GDPR is very much open to interpretation.
Cllr Michael Sheehan said the suggestions made by the Corporate Policy Group group are the best possible deal Wexford councillors can come up with ahead of the local elections, so long as councillors don’t have to send the form time after time to constituents.
Cllr Robbie Ireton said: ‘I often went into the housing officer with the social worker and we would have three different stories between the three of us but we would get top an element of the truth. We were working on the same team but now the councillors have been put on the sideline. We should all be working together. We have a bigger housing problem and we should be knuckled in together.’
‘You could have five to eight councillors sending out the same form to the same person,’ he added.
Cllr Malcolm Byrne said solving the problem was becoming like ‘a Brexit deal’. Mr Enright advised councillors to accept the suggestion made and they can always revise it in January. ‘We will try to improve this and look at an electronic way if recording this as well.’