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1. General

This notice sets out specific details required under the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) regarding information explaining the handling of personal data held by this organisation. It explains who we are, what we do with personal data collected, details of our data protection officer, when and why we collect personal data, how we use personal data, the legal basis for collecting persoal data, and other information required by the General Data Protection Regulation.

2. Identity and the contact details for the CSO:

Central Statistics Office
Skehard Road
Cork
T12 X00E
Tel: (+353) 21 453 5000
Fax: (+353) 21 453 5555
E-Mail: dpo@cso.ie

3. Who we are and what we do with statistical data:

Please click here to get full details on who we are and what we do with statistical data.

4. Contact details of the Data Protection Officer:

Data Protection Officer
Central Statistics Office
Skehard Road
Cork
T12 X00E
E-Mail: dpo@cso.ie

5. Purpose of processing

The purpose of processing personal data is in fulfilment of requirements set out under the Statistics Act 1993 to collect, process, analyse and disseminate information relating to the economic, social and general activities and conditions of the State.

In exercising its functions, the CSO obtains information from a wide range of sources. Under the Statistics Act, 1993 the CSO’s mandate and the restrictions on use of information (Sections 10(1) and 32 of the Act) make it clear that the information collected by the CSO may be used solely for statistical purposes. It may not be used for any other purpose and it is to be treated confidentially throughout all CSO processing.

Personal data is collected to meet National and European requirements for the production of official statistics. A link to the Annual Statistical Work-programme is set out here.

6. Legal basis for the collection of data

The CSO collects data under Sections 24, 26 and 30 of the Statistics Act, 1993:

Section 24 relates to voluntary surveys or censuses.
Section 26 relates to compulsory surveys or censuses (i.e. where a Ministerial Order made under Section 25 specifies that the statistics must be provided to the CSO).
Section 30 enables the CSO to have access to the records of public authorities for statistical purposes.

Data respondents may be contacted in a variety of ways, including by post, phone or email address provided by them, for the purpose of queries and/or the collection of other CSO statistical surveys.

Specific details for each statistical product are set out here and in the individual transparency notices associated with the statistical surveys and processing.

7. How long we hold data

In general, data will be retained for as long as necessary for statistical purposes. When survey forms or other data records are no longer required for statistical purposes, they are securely destroyed. The only identifiable records retained by the CSO are Census of Population forms – under Section 35 of the Statistics Act, these become public records after 100 years. All other forms are securely destroyed. The retention period and transparency details for each statistical product will be included here as part of the surveys and methodologies information provided for each product.

8. You have the right to complain to the Data Protection Supervisory Authority

You can contact the Office of the Data Protection Supervisory Authority at:

Telephone: (+353) 0761 104 800 or Lo Call Number 1890 252 231 Fax: (+353) 57 868 4757

E-mail: info@dataprotection.ie

Postal Address: Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, Ireland. 

9. Transfers to countries outside the European Union or international organisations

The CSO does not transfer personal data to countries outside the European Union. All data collected is for the sole purpose of processing statistics in accordance with the Statistics Act, 1993.

Legal Provisions exist for the transmission of confidential statistical data in anonymised form to Eurostat - the Statistical Office of the EU - for the purpose of compiling aggregate Community statistics. Under further European and Irish legislation, non-anonymised Balance of Payments related statistical microdata may be transmitted by the CSO to the European Central Bank, but this does not affect personal data privacy rights.

10. Automatic Decision making

There is no automatic decision making on any individual based on the personal data collected for statistical purposes. This would be in contravention of the Statistics Act which stipulates that data collected may only be used for statistical purposes.

11. Your GDPR rights in respect of data collected for statistical purposes

Under the General Data Protection Legislation, you have the following rights in relation to statistical data:

The right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Supervisory Authority.
You also have the following restricted rights when your data is processed for statistical purposes:

The right to request access, rectification, erasure, restriction* or to object to the processing of your personal data.
However those rights are restricted to the extent that:

The exercise of any of those rights would be likely to make impossible, or seriously impair, the achievement of the statistical processing and such restriction is necessary for the fulfilment of the statistical processing.

If you have any further questions regarding your Data Protection rights and you can't find the answer on our website, you can contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact details set out above.

12. Further processing of Statistical Data

Data collected may be used for further statistical processing under Section 20(c) of the Statistics Act 1993 by authorised researchers. This data is in a pseudonymised form. "Pseudonymisation" of data means replacing any identifying characteristics of data with a pseudonym, or, in other words, a value which does not allow the data subject to be directly identified.

* Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council

  • Information for Data Providers
  • Statistical Transparency Notices by Survey Sector