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Survey Name

Business Impact of COVID-19 Structural Survey

Survey purpose and legal basis

The Business Impact of COVID-19 Structural Survey is designed to measure and report quickly on key features of how the COVID-19 crisis has affected business in Ireland. The survey is being collected by the Central Statistics Office under Section 24 of the Statistics Act 1993. All information collected in the survey is confidential and will be used only for statistical purposes. 

The results which the CSO will publish from the survey will be in aggregate form and will not identify any individual company.

By completing the survey, businesses will be helping the CSO to produce statistics on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is information which the business community and policy makers need for planning purposes.

The questions in the survey ask enterprises about their trading activity, business performance and resilience in 2020 as well as expectations in 2021.

Who uses the results?

The results will be published by the CSO in aggregate form, which will not identify the information of any responding company. The results will be of use to the business community, Government and decision-makers generally. They should be of assistance in identifying the present position and helping to design and monitor policies to deal with the economic impact of COVID-19.

Our results are only ever made available to the public in aggregate form and we make sure that it is impossible for individuals or businesses to be identified.  The data collected in the Business Impact of COVID-19 Structural Survey will not be used for any additional statistical research.

Is your personal data confidential and how long will the data be retained?

Yes. All information supplied to the CSO is treated as strictly confidential. The Statistics Act, 1993 sets stringent confidentiality standards: information collected may be used only for statistical purposes and no details that might be related to an identifiable person or business undertaking may be divulged to any other government department or body. The data you provide in this survey will be held for a maximum period of seven years from the date of issue, subject to survey requirements.

The sources and categories of your personal data, where the data has not been collected directly from you:

In addition to the data collected directly from survey respondents CSO will also make use of administrative data provided to the CSO by the Revenue Commissioners (PAYE Modernisation, Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme) as well as any other available administrative data sources that reduce burden on the respondent.

For further information on this survey, your Data Protection rights and how your data is used please contact:

Colin Hanley, Business Statistics Section, Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork, T12 X00E.

Tel +353 (21) 4535208 or E-mail: Business_Stats@cso.ie  or business.covid@cso.ie

Data Protection Information:

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the following rights:

  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission. Contact details: Office of the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, Ireland.
  • The right to request access, rectification, erasure, restriction or to object to the processing of your personal data.

However, because your data is processed for statistical purposes these rights may be limited in accordance with Article 89 of the GDPR. This is due to the fact that the exercise of any of these rights may render impossible, or seriously impair, the achievement of the statistical processing and such restriction maybe necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes.

Central Statistics Office Data Protection Officer Contact Details: