Secret Surveillance Of Greystones Firemen

Big council’s watching you…

ollowing the revelation that cab dashcams at four Wicklow fire stations were recording conversations, Wicklow County Council has referred itself to the Data Protection Commissioner.

At Greystones, Bray, Wicklow Town and Arklow, fire fighters were recorded without their knowledge after an outside contractor fitted dashcams to vehicles.

The fittings had been made by station managers on safety grounds, and were carried out, says Wicklow County Council, in 2020. After enquiries by Sinn Féin TD John Brady, it was revealed that council officials were initially unaware of the device’s ability to record conversations between firefighters in the cabs.

The recordings were stored, with officials claiming that these were accessed on just one occasion, from two of the four vehicles, on July 31st last year.

Which would have been right around the time of the Greystones strikes.

The equipment was subsequently removed from the cabs in April of this year.

With all firefighters, serving and retired, who had travelled in the vehicles during the time covered being informed of the recordings, Brady has said that he believes up to 30 have already lodged complaints with the Data Protection Commissioner.

There also questions to be answered, says Brady, about a 2019 Facebook post with a video dating from early 2018 containing footage and audio from a Greystones cab. Which is two years before Wicklow County Council has said such recording equipment was installed.

Said the Bray TD, “The clandestine surveillance of workers including the recording of their private conversations is an abuse of power and is totally unacceptable.

“I am calling on Minister Darragh O’Brien and Wicklow County Council to investigate these allegations, and make their findings public with the utmost urgency.”