Mayor Mike Cubbard claims someone with access to his wife’s family’s private housing files leaked them to a national newspaper in an unsuccessful attempt to smear him.
He also believes fake social media profiles set up in his name were designed to damage him politically.
In an interview with this week’s Galway Advertiser, the city’s mayor says he and his family have been victims of a separate, decade-long campaign of harassment, vandalism and intimidation in his in-laws’ neighbourhood of Ballybane, and his homeplace of Westside, leaving their three children psychologically scarred.
A move in July, to a rented home in Rahoon, owned by Approved Housing Body, Tuath, was a new start for the Cubbards, but in August, the Irish Sunday Mirror published a story headlined ‘Got mayor in the end’ which reported the Cubbard family’s move was timed just after the city councillor’s third election as mayor, in June.
In response, Mayor Cubbard issued a statement explaining his family was renting a home in accordance with all protocols and procedures, and that public officials had no say in allocating their tenancy.
Cubbard has engaged Berwick Solicitors to provide legal advice in response to “inferences” made by The Mirror, which withdrew its article after complaints to its editor.
“I firmly believe it was a personal attack. I believe that someone connected colluded with politicians to try and damage me personally, and politically.”
Mayor Cubbard suspects some former politicians have orchestrated a smear campaign against him, and one other person who is not in politics.
Galway City Council said it takes data protection legislation seriously. “All staff are trained and made fully aware of their obligations in handling personal and sensitive information in the course of their duties,” said a spokeswoman.
“Galway City Council is not aware of any evidence to substantiate the allegation that personal data relating to any tenant was released by a staff member to any third party, or media outlet. The Council treats any such allegation with the utmost seriousness,” she added.
It is understood the chief executive of Galway City Council, Leonard Cleary, has initiated an internal inquiry in City Hall, and that the local authority’s Data Protection Officer has received a complaint.
“There is a line that one should not cross, and that is when you bring someone’s family into the public domain. I don’t care what a person’s political background is, or what colour party they’re with, their power or affluence: family is off limits,” said Mayor Cubbard.
The non-party councillor says that precise figures quoted in the Mirror, such as presumed rent arrears, were not known to him, but do pertain to historical circumstances of a member of his extended family. For this reason, a formal GDPR complaint was made.
“Figures in that article were not my figures. They could only have come from a file in the city council’s housing department. I genuinely didn’t know these figures as they weren’t my arrears,” he said.
