COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, June 14, 2010

QUESTION NO. 12

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager to update on efforts to encourage householders to register their mobile phone number and email address with the council, possibly through the council website as proposed by this council in a motion adopted at the March council meeting?

REPLY:

The Council transacts business through various channels including telephone, email, sms, web queries, twitter and face to face.

Further to the Motion at the March Council meeting, 16,504 customers have now registered their mobile phone numbers with the Environmental Services Department for updates on refuse collections, while 10,026 of the total number of contacts retained within the Corporate Customer Contact System have advised the Council that they are willing to be contacted.

Both Environmental Services and Corporate Services will continue to encourage customers to provide contact information which will allow service updates to be provided in a timely fashion.  The Council has begun to use social media in the form of TWITTER. This provided a quick, easy and inexpensive way of updating information for customers.

It should be borne in mind that while efforts are made to establish contact details for customers that the provisions of the Data Protection Acts, which regulates the holding and processing of personal data, must be adhered to.  These provisions prescribe that personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified purpose, that personal data processed shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose and that permission to use details must be obtained from Customers and that this permission is not always forthcoming