Dublin: Data Commission to probe transfer of details to private waste firm

The Office of the Data Protection Commission has begun an investigation into how Dublin City Council transferred the details of thousands of customers to a private waste company.

Information on 140,000 customers was handed over last week to Greyhound Recyling in a deal which allows the company take over the collection of the Council's waste in Dublin.

However, members of the public have complained to the Data Protection Commission about whether Dublin City Council complied with strict guidelines on data transfer.

Deputy Data Protection Officer Gary Davis said the investigation would follow two lines of inquiry.

"The first is to confirm that the sale of the waste-collection business complied with data protection requirements," he said.

"The second strand of the investigation is that Dublin City Council have apparently taken a decision to engage Greyhound separately to collect the debts of those people deemed to have outstanding waste charges. At first sight, that gives a cause for some concern to our office."