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Who we are:

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is Ireland's National Statistical Institute and our purpose is to impartially collect, analyse and make available statistics about Ireland’s people, society and economy. Specifically, our mandate under the Statistics Act 1993 is "The collection, compilation, extraction and dissemination for statistical purposes of information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions in the State" (Section 10).

At national level, CSO Official Statistics inform decision-making across a range of areas including construction, health, welfare, the environment and the economy. At European level, they provide an accurate picture of Ireland’s economic and social performance and enable comparisons between Ireland and other countries.

The CSO is also responsible for coordinating the Official Statistics of other public authorities.

The CSO is the Data Controller for the datasets used to create IPEADS.

Purpose of Processing:

The purpose of processing the IPEADS data is to give effect to the functions of the Central Statistics Office as set out under the Statistics Act 1993 at Section 10, these being to collect, process, analyse and disseminate information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions of the State.

IPEADS uses pseudonymised administrative data from public sector bodies and has been developed by the CSO as an experimental method of producing population statistics for April 2020. This report is the first time CSO has published detailed population statistics derived solely from administrative data[1]. It forms part of the development and modernisation of population and demography statistics for Ireland over the next decade. This modernisation of population and demography statistics will be required to meet new EU Regulations in this area which will require the provision of detailed small area population estimates on an annual basis. The publication is based on an experimental and developing methodology. It is intended to both illustrate the potential of administrative data to produce demographic statistics and highlight the challenges that arise. These are not the official population statistics and should be used with caution.

Legal basis for collection and processing:

Access by the CSO to the datasets utilised to create IPEADS is underpinned and provided for by Sections 11, 24 and 30 of the Statistics Act, 1993.

Section 11 - ‘Cooperation and liaison with other public authorities and persons’

Section 24 - ‘Invitation to provide information on a voluntary basis’

Section 30 - ‘Use of Records of Public Authorities for Statistical Purposes’. This provides for cooperation by public authorities with the work of the CSO in granting access to administrative records held by them.

The exercise by the Office of its powers under these Sections of the Act is undertaken in the context of its legally designated functions, which are set out at Section 10 of the 1993 Act as iterated above.

The CSO is lawfully processing the data in the necessary performance of a task carried out in the public interest and exercise of the CSOs official authority, abiding by Article 6(1)(e) (processing necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller) of the GDPR. The CSO in the course of its duties and in meeting our mandate will undertake statistical analysis that is needed to examine and define the statistical potential of data, ensuring the ability to continuously inform society and policy.

Processing of data to produce IPEADS is also undertaken in accordance with Article 9 (2) (g) reasons of substantial public interest and (9) (2) (j) processing necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes and is permitted under Sections 38 (1)(a), 42 (1)(c) and 54 (c) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Categories of personal data concerned for the IPEADS release:

  1. Data of Birth (DOB)
  2. Sex
  3. CSOPPSN
  4. EIRCODE PIK
  5. Nationality
  6. Family code
  7. Marital Status
  8. Level of education
  9. Economic Status
  10. Industry of Occupation
  11. Place of work
  12. Rent paid
  13. Field of Study

Who uses the data:

The data is received in the CSO by a dedicated business unit called the Administrative Data Centre (ADC) using secure transmission methods.  The ADC is a specialist team responsible for ingesting, processing, transforming, pseudonymising and storing records in a format accessible for statistical analysis. In the pseudonymisation process, all personal identifiers are removed by the ADC. Additionally, once in receipt of administrative records, the ADC converts the identifier numbers in each dataset that remain to a Protected Identifier Key (PIK). PIKs are a unique and non-identifiable number which is internal to the CSO. Using PIKs enables the CSO and approved researchers to link to other pseudonymised data and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of the individual data.

Access to the pseudonymised data produced via this process for analysis purposes is then provided to named statisticians within the CSO once a statistical requirement is identified and the necessary governance procedures are followed.

Statisticians who require access to identifiable data for statistical processing purposes must comply with extensive governance procedures and have their business case signed off at management board level.  

Aggregated statistical outputs derived from the IPEADS data will be used by, for example, academics, media, the public, policymakers as well as other national statistical organisations.

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

Yes, any identifiable data provided to the CSO is considered strictly confidential and may not be shared with any third party. This is underpinned by the Statistics Act, 1993.

The IPEADS data will be retained for an initial 3-year period. This will facilitate the future creation of related statistical products from administrative data, including a migration time series and a linked longitudinal population dataset[2].  The need to retain the data will be reviewed after this 3-year period. At that point, it will be clear whether there is an established user demand for statistical outputs which require 3-year-old data, for example a longitudinal research file. If this is required by users, it may be necessary at that point to retain the data for longer in order to link the data from individual years.

The CSO is continuously evaluating the statistical requirements to balance the interests of data subjects with the requirements for official statistics and retention periods. As part of this evaluation, recommendations may be made during periodic reviews in relation to the retention of data. 

Does CSO share personal data with any third parties:

No.

The CSO will never share any personal data with any third parties – State, commercial or otherwise. In certain specific cases, pseudonymised versions of data may be made available to approved researchers under strict researcher protocols and detailed governance procedures. 

One of the core principles governing the operation of National Statistical Institutes is the protection of the confidentiality of all information supplied by data providers. The CSO’s ability to compile Official Statistics is based on the extent to which individuals and companies trust the CSO with sensitive information and the CSO’s guarantee of confidentiality for all data providers is built on the fundamental requirement of non-disclosure of confidential data as set out in national and EU statistical legislation.

What rights do you as the data subject have:

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) confers the following rights on individuals: 

  1. The right to be informed
  2. The right of access
  3. The right to rectification
  4. The right to erasure
  5. The right to restrict processing
  6. The right to object to processing of personal data

All data being used for the IPEADS statistical release are pseudonymised and therefore personal data cannot be identified from these datasets. An individual right of access to the personal data furnished by the Public Service Bodies (PSBs), relevant to IPEADS and containing personal data is possible. Data Subjects seeking to exercise GDPR rights over this personal data may wish to engage with the source PSB as the controller of first instance for all of the data involved in this processing.

Should you wish to exercise these rights directly via the CSO, because your data is processed for statistical purposes, certain limitations in accordance with Article 89 of the GDPR may apply. 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 may be necessary for the fulfilment of those purposes. Should you wish to exercise your rights in respect of your IPEADS data, you may contact the CSO Data Protection Officer on the details set out below. Applications for access will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. It is the intention of the Office to vindicate this right wherever possible.

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

  • Department of Education (DE).
  • Department of Social Protection (DSP).
  • Higher Education Authority (HEA).
  • Health Service Executive (HSE).
  • Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI).
  • Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
  • Office of the Revenue Commissioners.
  • Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI).

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

Brendan Murphy, Statistician, Census, CSO, Swords Business Campus, Balheary Road, Swords, Co. Dublin, K67 D2X4

Tel +353 (21) 453 1329 E-mail: census@cso.ie

Right to lodge a complaint to the Supervisory Authority

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission if you consider that processing of your personal data is contrary to data protection law. The contact details of the Commission are:  

By post: Office of the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, Ireland.

By e-mail:            info@dataprotection.ie

By phone:            01 7650100 / 1800 437 737

Online:                https://www.dataprotection.ie/

Contact details of the Data Protection Officer:

The CSO’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Transparency Notice (contact details below).  If you have any questions about this statement, including any request to exercise your legal rights, please contact or send them to the CSO DPO:

Data Protection Officer,

Central Statistics Office,

Skehard Road,

T12 X00E

Tel: 021-453 5000

Email: dpo@cso.ie

 

 

 

[1] Administrative data are information that is collected by other government departments and agencies for their own purposes, which is then used by CSO to efficiently accomplish its mandated objectives. CSO treats all data that can identify a person, a business or an organization with strict confidentiality.

[2] A time series is created when a statistical release is repeated annually.  This allows users to see how the data, in this case migration flows, change over time. A longitudinal population dataset contains information about how individuals' characteristics and circumstances change from year to year. For example, if a person moves from being in third level education to working from one year to the next, this would be reflected in the longitudinal dataset for that person. These datasets are of interest to researchers and policy makers who want to analyse how certain policy choices can impact upon aspects of how people live, or to assess the conditions of important cohorts of the population, such as migrants and how they are integrating into their new country of residence.