Kerry councillor calls for addresses to be redacted after spending €10,000 on home security
The KerrymanA Kerry councillor believes their addresses should no longer be made public following revelations that public representatives are now installing thousands of euros on security measures.
Councillor Angie Baily argued councillors were already accessible by phone and email, and that politician’s home addresses should fall under data protection laws.
Cllr Bailey is the second Kerry councillor to spend €10,000 on home security under new allowances, along with councillor Michael Foley, despite having experienced no issues at her own home.
She has used the money provided by central government to upgrade her home with a gate, lights and CCTV following the required inspection from An Garda Síochána.
“People can very easily now, they can just come up and knock on the door,” she said.
“I haven’t had any situations yet, but several councillors have had situations with people coming to the door.
“We talk so much about GDPR, but as local councillors our home addresses are made public. So GDPR doesn’t seem to include local counsellor safety.
“These times are very, very challenging and if you’re going to have people to do the job, they need to know that they can do it and be protected from that tiny minority.”
She argued that constituents already have councillor phone numbers and email addresses, and that home addresses are no longer needed.
Only last year a €2,500 security allowance for local authority members was raised to €10,000, indicating that other councillors are likely to follow suit.
The online space seems to also weigh heavy on some representatives shoulders, with Cllr Baily believing there needs to be more monitoring of ‘hate speech’ against local politicians.
“If you look at some of the comments on counsellors who might be more social media savvy than I would be, you can see that the comments that are made publicly are not very nice,” said Cllr Bailey.
“It does make you think that we need to be taking safety precautions if not for today then it’s for the future going forward.
“There seems to be no protection whatsoever for what people can speak and I’m all for the rights of free speech…but surely the right to free speech needs to come with respect for others.
“Particularly in today’s times what is being said online about political parties and about people is absolutely shocking.”