Councillor 'first in Offaly' to receive secure county council email account

Green Party Councillor Mark Hackett has said he is the first councillor to receive an Offaly County Council secure email account.

Cllr Hackett says he first raised the need for increased security for personal data following the ransomware attack on the HSE last year.

"I pointed out that Offaly County Council was one of the last councils in the country not to provide councillors with dedicated and secure email accounts. In fairness, the council responded favourably and with a dose of persistence on my own part, we have got there. I am the first councillor in Offaly to have a dedicated secure email account provided by the council.’

It is understood that the council will roll out these accounts to all councillors over the next while. They will replace email accounts provided by gmail, yahoo and hotmail, amongst others. Cllr Hackett said: “As Councillors we receive some very sensitive information including on people’s health, sexual orientation, race or political views. All of this is considered ‘special category’ data under GDPR legislation which has been around since 2018 – I take this responsibility very seriously and am glad that the council supported my request for a dedicated email.”

“I have business cards printed with the old email and will have to scratch that out and handwrite the new one in – reduce, reuse, recycle! My new email is mhackett@cllr.offalycoco.ie. I have asked the council to update my details on the website as soon as possible. If you notice your other elected reps using gmail, yahoo or hotmail for your personal data call them out on it – these are not sufficiently secure in my opinion.”