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Survey Name

Consumer Prices

Survey purpose and legal basis

The Consumer Price Index or CPI measures the overall change in the prices of goods and services bought for the purpose of consumption by all private households in the country and by foreign tourists on holiday in Ireland. It is compiled and published every month and it is the most widely used measure of consumer inflation.

Article 29 of the Statistics Act 1993 empowers officers of statistics (e.g. Price Collectors) to enter premises as required. You are also obliged under SI No 313/2017 – Statistics (Consumer Price Survey) Order 2017, prescribed by the Taoiseach, to provide the detailed price data requested for compilation in the CPI. Under Sections 26 and 27 of the 1993 Statistics Act you are obliged by law to complete and return this form. Any person who fails or refuses to provide this information or who knowingly provides false information may be subject to prosecution under Part VI of the Act.

Who uses the results?

The CPI is published monthly on the CSO website. The principal outputs are aggregated indices expressed as part of consumption categories. The data is used extensively by Department of Finance, Central Bank of Ireland, European Central Bank (ECB), National Accounts, Eurostat-, economic analysts, researchers, media commentators and the general public.

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

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 details relating to an identifiable person, product or business will not be divulged to any other government department or body.

Our results are only ever made available in aggregate form and we make sure that it is impossible for individuals, products or businesses to be identified. Survey forms returned by businesses and forms used to collect prices in stores are stored securely for a maximum period of two years. All data collected for the compilation of the CPI is stored securely on CSO databases indefinitely for future research and development and will only be used for statistical purposes.

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

N/A

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

Anthony Dawson, Statistician, Consumer Prices Section, Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork T12 X00E. Tel +353 (21) 4535521 of E-mail cpi@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: