A DUNMANWAY woman didn’t fill out her census form because she didn’t want anyone to know anything about her and she wasn’t happy with the Government at the time, a court heard last week.
Sarah Hodkinson of Coolekelure, Dunmanway did not appear at Clonakilty District Court and the case was heard in her absence in a prosecution taken by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the second of its kind in West Cork in recent weeks.
Próinsias Lyne from the State Solicitor’s office told Judge Philip O’Leary that the defendant did not appear in court on the first occasion either and was fully aware of the court date.
Ian Shadwell told the court that he was working for the CSO handing out census forms in March 2022. He said he called to the defendant’s home and gave her the form and told her of the penalties involved for not filling out the form properly.
‘It was a pleasant conversation and I told her if she needed help in filling out the form, I could help her,’ he said.
‘She said she didn’t want to fill it out at all. She didn’t want anyone to know anything about her and it was a simple no.’
He said he told his supervisor about the incident and he went back to the defendant’s six weeks after the Census date and she maintained she wasn’t going to fill out the form.
Field supervisor Anne Bradley said she called to the defendant’s home on April 1st, 2022 and Ms Hodkinson said she wasn’t filling out the Census form on the grounds of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
‘I told her all the information was confidential. She said no and that she wasn’t happy with the Government at the time,’ said Ms Bradley.
Census regional supervisor, John Hennessy told the court that a second reminder was posted to her followed by a final notice issued on May 5th 2022 and they received no reply from her.
Mr Hennessy said he checked the IT system on May 17th to see if she had returned the forms but found that she had not.
The court heard she has no previous convictions while Mr Lyne said the defendant took a ‘principled approach’ to this issue.
Judge O’Connor convicted and fined her €175 and gave her three months to pay the fine.
