Finding an old friend

Hi
I was wondering if anybody can help me track down an old friend of mine.
I last saw this friend a few months ago and heard from him about 2-3 months ago.
Anyway i wont give his name out but he was being housed by the social welfare in the cavan area and i was wondering if anybody knew wheter the social welfare in cavan would give me any info giving his whereabouts if i asked and explained who i was. All i need to know is if he still lives in this flat or has he moved on and if so where to. it is very important that i find him soon any info regarding this would be much apprieciated.

Yours
Gary

Have you tried droping a note into the flat where you suspect he lives or ask other people in the building has he left a fowarding address for his mail. Or perhaps call to his family home.

Hi
No i cant do that as im not sure the exact address of his flat in cavan and i dont know his family very well. in any case they live somewhere in monaghan and he doesnt even speak to them much anymore.
i just need to know if i rang the social welfare would they provide me of the details or are they bound by confidentiality in these cases. it is very important that i reach him soon.

Yours
Gary

I dont see how social welfare would ever give out details about an individual even to next-of-kin, let alone to someone who is an old friend. There are numerous websites dedicated to finding lost friends. If you do known the general area where he did live last and your friend drinks perhaps call into the local pub to see if someone might know.
If it is important I would suggest thumbing through the phone book for the area and trying his family.

It is highly unlikely that you will receive details from Social Welfare. They are bound by the Data Privacy Acts. Perhaps you could try the Post Office in the area?

Marion

"I was wondering if anybody can help me track down an old friend of mine."

Maybe the old friend does'nt want to be tracked down. He may e.g. fear for his life. Who knows.

I dont know what if anything you're implying but although i didnt want to give this information out in case somebody recognises his description this person has around a year left to live and the reason i want to contact him soon is to see him before he dies.

Gary, I don't want to sound unsympathetic but I do think that if he was interested in keeping in touch, he wouldn't have chosen to simply disappear. Communication is a two-way thing after all. If he has chosen to drift out of your life, I don't think I'd be hassling him about it.

It has nothing to do with him deciding to lose contact with me. my phone was lost so he cant contact me and im in the process of moving house and he doesnt know the exact address of where to or wheter im already gone as i was supposed to move already but the deal fell through. He's already suicidal before he found out the information that he did. i recieved a hand written letter from him saying he was leaving me everything in his will i and dont know how to reach him as im not sure of the exact address of his old flat as he spent most of his time in dublin. my original post was just asking if anybody knew wheter the social welfare would give me info on his whereabouts or should i take time off work and see if i can find this guys place myself which would be a bit like stumbling around in the dark till i come accross something.

I don't think social welfare would give his details. Maybe you could explain the situation and ask them to pass on your details to him? Otherwise, as he has a will, he must have a solicitor. You could try the same tack with a solicitor. Good luck anyway.

I needed to check on somebody's social welfare details some time ago for work purposes. I hired a private investigator who knew somebody in a social welfare office who was able to look up the man's details and give me what was required.

If you know his social welfare office, then you could try asking them to pass on your contact details or a letter to him, rather than them giving you his details.

Art said:

I needed to check on somebody's social welfare details some time ago for work purposes. I hired a private investigator who knew somebody in a social welfare office who was able to look up the man's details and give me what was required.

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Is that not a sacking offence?

You could try putting up a sign in the post office where he might collect his benefits?

Here are a few further suggestions:

How about placing an advertisement seeking information on your friend in the local newspaper in that area?

Often, readership of local newspapers is quite high and this can be a quick way of reaching a broad audience. For the sake of a small fee for placing the ad, it may be a quick way of getting the message that you are looking for that person out there.

Have you considered contacting the local radio station and asking them to mention on air that you are looking for this person? I've heard requests like this on our local radio station in the past.

You might also consider putting up a notice saying you are looking for this person in the local hall, newsagents, parish centre or local meeting place where that person lived.

Church newsletters are also a useful way to get the message out there. Placing an advert in them is also usually free.

Ciaran said:

Is that not a sacking offence?

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No - it is not. None of the social welfare officials who looked up Dolores McNamara's details were sacked. A number of them merely got a warning

Art said:

No - it is not. None of the social welfare officials who looked up Dolores McNamara's details were sacked. A number of them merely got a warning

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Surely there's a difference between "looking up" and disclosure. I think the Data Protection Commissioner might have strong views too.

Look the OP is clearly desperate to find this guy as he is dying. He asked people how he would go about it. I told him of one avenue - it is up to him to decide the ethics, morality or otherwise of going down this route.

Art said:

Look the OP is clearly desperate to find this guy as he is dying. He asked people how he would go about it. I told him of one avenue - it is up to him to decide the ethics, morality or otherwise of going down this route.

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As I see it "ethics, morality or otherwise" are not the issue here. To say it is not a sacking offence for a civil servant to disclose information to a third party is totally incorrect and misleading.

I don't think he is necessarily a missing person in the formal sense etc and it may need to be reported by his family in any event but could you try contacting the Gardai in his locality explaining you are worried about him and asking if they can help out even if only making a few informal inquiries as to his whereabouts?

Also if you think he is suicidal and I assume you are saying he is terminally ill aswell it might be possible he is in contact with the Samaritans/Hospice/Local Priest or other support services in that area. While they are likely bound to maintain his confidentiality and probably would not even confirm that he is in contact with them they might be willing to take your name and contact details and pass it along if he wanted to make contact with you (if they tell you he has not contacted them leave your details anyway and ask that in the event he does that they pass it along). After all if he has contacted them they will be trying to help him and assisting him in reconnecting with a good friend to lean on if he so chooses would seem one way to help him.

There have been other good suggestions previously and while the one about the private investigator being used to look up social welfare details has wandered a bit off topic it might be worth considering hiring a private investigator to assist in locating him as a good one should be more expert at finding people than the average punter anyway even without contacts in the Social Welfare.