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Data Matching Policy

The CSO is Ireland's national statistical institute. Our role is to provide independent statistics about our society, economy, and environment, which are freely available to everyone and support evidence-informed decision making.

Operating under the Statistics Act, 1993 (the ‘Act’), we collect information directly from people, households, and businesses in both statutory and voluntary surveys. The Act also gives us authority to assess and realise the statistical potential of public authorities’ records; this means we have access to data on individuals and businesses collected for administrative purposes.

Safeguards

Data Protection law applies to our work. Additionally, the Act sets a high bar in relation to confidentiality, which is reflected in our Code of Practice on Statistical Confidentiality. When we collect information, directly or indirectly, it is used only for statistical purposes.

Matching

Linking of information between datasets (‘Matching’) is necessary for us to produce official statistics. As well as producing data files that allow more extensive statistical analysis, matching helps to minimise the burden and cost of data collection. This policy governs all matching we carry out, which must:

  • be only for statistical purposes;
  • maintain statistical confidentiality;
  • comply with data protection law, and;
  • be pre-approved by our Director General.

Register

We maintain a publicly accessible Register of all matching.