A 40-page dossier which homeless people are asked to complete before accessing State services is adding to "their misery and isolation", a homeless charity has said. Ronan McGreevyreports.
Trust Ireland has written to the Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes, complaining about the "Holistic Needs Assessment" form.
The commissioner's office said it is currently investigating the complaint.
The assessment has been drawn up by the Homeless Agency, which is the State body responsible for the management and co-ordination of services to people who are homeless in Dublin.
The agency says the form is a "vital element" in its strategy of eliminating long-term homelessness in Dublin by 2010 and the process of filling it out is voluntary. It also stressed that homeless people will not be treated less favourably if they do not complete it.
The document asks for personal details including name, ethnic origin and next of kin, but also whether the person has had head lice, scabies or a sexually transmitted disease.
Alice Leahy, director and co-founder of Trust Ireland, said the information is often collected from people who are at their lowest ebb. "If people are lonely, isolated and alone, the last thing they want to do is to fill out questionnaires," she said.
In her letter to Mr Hawkes, Ms Leahy said she was concerned that information that was "both highly sensitive and deeply personal could prove very damaging if elicited in an insensitive and unprofessional way by relatively unskilled staff when the interviewees may suffer from serious mental or psychological problems".
She also alleged that homeless people were being offered services which were theirs by right as a trade-off for filling out the form.
Ms Leahy said there was also anecdotal evidence that homeless people have been barred from places because of alleged incidents in other centres - incidents that have been held on computer databases. "What steps are taken to ensure that information placed about an individual is not libellous, and where offences are alleged, that due process and natural justice have been complied with to ensure their rights are protected?" she wrote.
In a detailed response, the Homeless Agency said the assessment helped avoid the scenario whereby homeless people had to repeat their story to different agencies and only qualified professionals could carry it out.
It also said it had initiated a meeting with the Office of Data Protection in September 2006 to ensure that the privacy of homeless people was respected.
All those who completed the form were requested to sign a consent form to allow services to share information. The data was only given to other homeless agencies on a "need to know basis" and with the permission of the homeless person.