We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
ESB UNION CONNECT is refusing to erase the personal data of its former members after those members requested that it do so in line with the EU’s strict data protection guidelines.
Some hundreds of disgruntled former Connect members have sought for their data to be erased in order that they might join Connect’s sister union Siptu.
The request comes after over 18 months of acrimony between Connect (formerly TEEU – Technical Electrical and Engineering Union) and its members over their perception of the allegedly poor standard of representation the union provided for them during pay talks with the ESB in January 2017.
Some 250 members resigned from Connect from March 2017 and joined Siptu, only to be expelled from that organisation in July 2018 following an objection by Connect.
They are now attempting to rejoin Siptu, but first are seeking confirmation from Connect that they have resigned as its members.
Connect had declined to provide that confirmation, a step which led to each worker mailing the union two weeks ago and requesting that their personal data be erased from its files, both on and offline, in line with the EU’s wide-ranging General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Erased
The reason for this request is that if Connect confirms it has erased those members’ data it will be taken as de facto confirmation that the members have exited the union.
Now, in response to that request, Connect says it will not be erasing those members’ names, dates of birth, membership numbers, details of arrears (if applicable), and joining and leaving dates.
Click her to view a larger image
Under GDPR’s ‘right to be forgotten’ articles, a body must outline a concrete justification for not acceding to a request to erase personal data.
In this case, Connect’s reasoning is twofold:
How the payments in the former point apply to ex-members is unclear. TheJournal.ie spoke to some of those ex-members who said that such payments are not in any way applicable to them.
TheJournal.ie sought comment from Connect regarding this matter. A response had not been received at the time of publication.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) told TheJournal.ie, with regard to the right to be forgotten:
Put simply, the right is not absolute.
Transparency
However, a senior professional source working in the field of data protection said that justification for the non-erasure of personal data under GDPR “must display transparency and accountability, and must deal in situations that will happen, not ones that may happen”.
It’s understood that Connect has recently sought to hold meetings with members and former members around the country in an effort to persuade them to stay with (or rejoin) the union.
It recently emerged that an additional 200 ESB technicians that were originally with Siptu prior to the influx of former TEEU members last year are now intent on leaving that organisation in solidarity with the other workers who were expelled.
However, that move was not expected to happen before a crucial vote on work practices within the company, due to take place in the next month, in order to leave all members entitled to a vote.
Meanwhile, it’s now believed that those negotiations are in fact now in jeopardy due to the ongoing fraught nature of relations between ESB network technicians and Connect, with the company understood to be ‘concerned’ at the ongoing impasse.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
A public body in Ireland wasting public funds? Never…must be some mistake surely!!
Yes when your found doing something dodgy . You don’t get sacked . You get promoted up wit a higher wage . Its normal .
It’s about promoting people out of the way. Get them up in top jobs where they don’t make any decisions or mistakes… They are guided by the lower paid, competent individuals who’ll never get promoted because they are too good at what they do and could never be replaced!
Read that back to yourself there please
In the last week alone, there is this huge waste from Dublin City Council, the €1m which they have spent securing the Priory Hall site and the €6m that they spent buying a hotel from the developer of Priory Hall, Tom McFeely… and the City Manager who oversaw all of this, John Tierney, is given the job as Head of Irish Water?
Add to that all the other money wasted by the Council, recent report of purchase of house in Fitzwilliam for housing of the homeless, seven years ago, never used to date. In the mean time the Council are overcharging tenents for rent and refusing to be accountable or to support their figures.
Vera
and don’t forget the incinerator!
Grand little country all the same isn’t it? Christ, Bob Geldof knew what he was writing years ago with ‘Banana Republic’.
I don’t understand why they didn’t just use the money to fix priory hall rather than secure it. Not sure if a million euro would cover it but it would help. I don’t like the idea of local authorities using people’s money to fix a private developers mistake but in fairness, let the residents back into their homes. Then have lost enough in this mess already.
Actually Maria, originally the cost of Priory Hall corrections was quoted at €1 million… Go figure… :)
cos the didnt have the money in the first place. This is a cost
I should nip in at this point and clarify that there has been some incorrect reporting about Priory Hall in the last few days.
As we understand it, the €1 million being quoted for Priory Hall repairs refers only to to the Council’s own share of the repairs bill (because of the number of apartments it owns itself). The total repairs bill is far higher, when you include the apartments which are owned by private individuals.
(It’s also a bit of a folly to split the prices this way because you can’t just repair individual apartments – it’s the entire building, including common areas like entry-exit routes, that needs fixing.)
Thank you Gavan for clarifying that. I live on Hole in The wall Rd beside Priory Hall and there is no way 1 million Euro would even begin to sort that mess out. Mr. Tierney of DCC should be held accountable for the damage that he has caused to our community. When on earth will the people in “power” be punished for their contribution to the ruination of our wee country? It seems to me that the only people being blamed for this depression/recession is us! I would love you “The journal” to do a where are we now? About the rogue builders/developers of the last ten years. I bet my life they’re not in temporary accommodation, I bet they’re still in their palatial homes. I know they are. Justice? Is there such a thing as justice in Ireland? If I was young, I’d flee this country, I’m devastated to say that.
I think we need a report into how the money was wasted.. A really expensive one
this one cost you nothing!
The problem is Councillors, I wonder how many contracts were awarded to the friends of friends and they weren’t tendered I bet! The Garda fraud squad, needs to be beefed or horsed up and we need a team of untouchables!
Meanwhile the man in charge of Dublin City Council managing this EUR40 million of wasted taxpayer money gets recognised for this incompetence, by recently being awarded the top job at Irish Water, on EUR200,000+ a year + perks.
The commercial provision of water is a business he has zero experience in. Where was the role advertised? Was he the best man for woman for the job?
Dublin City Council under his management also squandered EUR80+ million on the Poolbeg Incinerator disaster. Management of that massive waste of money deemed as ‘weak and inadequate’ by the auditors. Was he asked about his handling of that at interview for the Irish Water job?
These are only two stories we know about in terms of massive monies wasted by Dublin City Council. God knows how much more is not yet in the public eye.
How about the very murky way in which Greyhound was awarded the domestic waste contract without a full transparent public tender. The council voted against Greyhound but he veto’d the no vote – despite Greyhound having a poor track record in the provision of services to Iarnrod Eireann and being fined substantially for it.
Can someone let me know how one develops the skills to rise and rise in the Establishment yet have a piss poor track record when it comes to performance, grotesque waste and incompetence?
If it was the Private Sector he would either have been fired years ago or else the company he was in charge of would be in liquidation.
Wasted €40 million in public funds on one project, what about all the other ones.
30 mill. 10 on the others…..
That’s one hell of a lot of peoples house hold charges gone to waste.
Can someone explain why we have a height limit for buildings in the city?
I am a civils contractor who do contracts for cork county council and can honestly say that thought there are some good council engineers a lot would never survive in the private sector. They have a total different mentality than private sector. A lot of them have no drive and are there for the easy life. This time of year they are tight with their budgets and come the end of the year they are throwing money at you to spend their budget as they won’t get the same amount next year if they don’t spend it. It is sickening to see it at times.
Just look at how roads are constructed. Sure in Sandyford there are 2X 1km long heavy concrete ‘noise’ walls to separate 1) a road within an industrial estate from the noise of the LUAS and 2) the industrial estate from the noise of the road. There is a million wasted right there.
I too would like to know why there is a height limit for buildings in Dublin – its about time we started building up not out.
I can never understand the phobia they always have of building ‘too high’ in the capital city!!
there are lots of good reasons not to which are not about aesthetics
I think it is there for good reason. If it wasnt we would have about 40 high rise skeleton buildings from failed developers. The self named ‘Baron of Ballsbridge’ and his Knightsbridge nightmare come to mind.
I’m glad in a way the boom ended as the planning authorities were a disgrace. If I wantted to build a house in the country on families land I would have to apply for years.
Adebayo
actually the statistics show otherwise – 54,000 single dwellings permitted since 2007. Besides the fact that the land is ‘your family’s’ is irrelevant.
well if they went ahead with the 25 floors of a new liberty hall redevelopment it would create building jobs as well as a bar/restaurant on the top floor and a viewing tower…… so yet more jobs AND becoming a massive tourist attraction AND creating money for the gov also who doesn’t visit the highest building in a city to get spectacular views of the place???
well, actually research shows that the majority of tourists visit Dublin rate low-rise Georgian charm highly together with social/cultural aspects. If you pepper the city centre with high rise you erode character, thereby eroding the tourist draw. Besides there is a very popular viewing tower on top of Guinness and Croke Park – to follow your logic jobs are not cumulative they simply compete against each other – no net gain.
Hi Gavan
Slight correction
“The body says a total of €30 million was squandered by approving planning permission for the construction of the National Children’s Hospital at the site of the Mater hospital, which was later overturned by An Bord Pleanála.”
This is not what the report says. DCC encouraged/or did not discourage the proposed development of the NCC. This was a Strategic Infrastructure Development project and the decision was made directly by the Board.
if you change ‘approving’ to ‘supporting’ that would do it. Check out consultation notes in annex of report – you could hardly believe that one of the biggest applications in the State could be recorded by a few scribbles.
Thanks OOI – I’ve made a quick change to it now; hope it more accurately reflects the report!
I wonder what the logic was behind the decisions that resulted in the massive losses.
It reminds me of the “farmleigh” saga where ahern gave over the asking price (I stand to be corrected on this) but there must have been some reason behind the decisions.
largely competition. Local councils in Ireland are in competition with each other for investment, commercial rates and development levies. This is the consequence of having no stable local tax base.
That kind of money never gets wasted .. it gets squirrelled away in Caymen Islands bank accounts!!
Blah, blah, blah…. Cynical am I? You darn tootin’… Nothing will ever change in this country regarding anything related to power and money. Those elected to power, assigned to paid board positions, and managing funds will continue to misappropriate funds, steal money, hide money and make deals that financially benefit their pocket, unless systems are put in place to track their spending, jail and fine their poor decisions, inactions, misuse of funds and misappropriations of funds.
However… It will never happen… Why.. Because we the tax payer have no power. Supposedly, the way we elect individuals is suppose to be our power…. The sad thing is that the way the election process works here makes it in possible to make true change. Parish, front porch and fiefdom politics don’t work. The politicians have also taken our democratic power away from us… So we don’t have a course of actions.
With an exception of few…. The average politician, when voted in, is given an invitation to demand that we drop our pants, bend over and grab our ankles and take it till they get what they want.
Am I cynical… Yes…. Am I angry… Yes…. Am I tired…. Yes…. Am I frustrated…. Yes….
Thank God I know that there are people worse off…
Respite Grant!
Mobility Allowence!
Laughing stock of europe!!!!
Just wondering if anyone was held accountable anywhere along the line here. Did anyone get fired or demoted. Seems that one of the top dogs actually got promoted. This s**t makes me sick to my stomach when you think of the millions that were wasted and people in this country can hardly afford to feed their kids or even keep a old beat up car on the road because there being taxed to the hilt. ” Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
Surely it was the National Paediatric Developement Board that is responsible for 30 million(??) being wasted on the new childrens hospital. BTW the (??) are inserted because the board only published their 2010 company accounts last month.I wonder when/if we will ever know the full amount.They spent half a million defending the project at Bord Pleanala alone…!!
point is if DCC advised them that the proposal breached their development plan and therefore they could not support it, the money would not have been wasted. This is the job of a planning authority as a statutory consultee. Have a look at the very last few pages of that report – the scribbles.
Is there actually no accountability in this Country?!?! And here was me thinking the property tax was to fund failed banks!!
C’mon JacckiB accountability in Ireland !! The more incompetence the bigger the promotion pension and wages . We reward failure in Ireland.
Happening at every level. Dad had to go to An Bord Pleanála to overturn a granted application on a site next door to build concrete and glass apartments next to 130 year old Victorian railway houses. An Bord Pleanála overturned the council’s decision on the grounds that the development contravened the council’s own development plan. Cost Dad 300 euro to force An Bord Pleanála to do the council’s own job for them.
Sounds like a “Brown envelope” job to me!!!
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say