Survey Name:
Live Births Registration.
Survey purpose and legal basis:
All births that occur in the State must be registered within 3 months of the date thereof. The purpose of using the births administrative data is to provide the public, government agencies, researchers etc with the number of births based on either date of registration of the births or year of occurrence of the birth. This statistical data informs planning and political decision making.
Births data is prepared by the Central Statistics Office for the Minister for Social Protection in accordance with the provisions of section 2 of the Vital Statistics and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1952 (as amended by section 7 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1972) and will remain in force, pending commencement of section 4 of the Civil Registration Act 2004.
The legal basis for processing is underpinned by Articles 6 (1) (c) (for certain variables/outputs) and 6 (1) (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Article 6 (1) (c) relates to processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject, while Article 6 (1) (e) concerns 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.
Certain data variables received from General Registration Office (GRO) contain special category data and, in these instances, processing is in line with Article 9 (2) (g) reasons of substantial public interest and 9 (2) (j) processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.
Processing of General Registration Office (GRO) data is also permitted under Sections 38 (1)(a), 42 (1)(c) and 54 (c) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Categories of personal data concerned for General Registration Office (GRO) data:
Personal data relating to the baby, mother and father including the following principal variables: Birth weight, Gestational Age, Date of birth of infant, Date of birth of parents, Marital status of mother, Number of previous children, County of residence of mother, Multiplicity, Occupation of parents, Baby's forename.
Who uses the data:
Our results are only ever made available to the public in aggregate form, and we make sure that it is impossible for individuals to be identified.
There is wide national usage from other Government Departments, Demographic and Health Researchers, Professional Bodies and the Public. International users include Eurostat and the World Health Organisation.
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 no details that might be related to an identifiable person may be divulged to any other government department or body. Data without identifiers is retained for years 1986 to 2006. Data with identifiers is retained from 2007. This data will be retained indefinitely and used solely for statistical purposes.
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 which is collected under the Statistics Act, 1993.
In certain specific cases, Research Microdata files (RMF) 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:
An individual right of access to the personal data furnished by a Public Service Bodies (PSB) is possible. Data Subjects seeking to exercise GDPR rights over their personal data may wish to engage with the source PSB as the controller of first instance.
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 maybe necessary for the fulfilment of those purposes. Should you wish to exercise your rights in respect of your GRO 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 these rights wherever possible.
The sources and categories of your personal data, where the data has not been collected directly from you:
The General Registration Office (GRO)
Examples of variables being received by the CSO are outlined under categories of personal data above.
For further information on this survey, your Data Protection rights and how your data is used, please contact:
Seán O'Connor, Statistician, Administrative Data Governance & Analysis, Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork T12 X00E
Tel +353 (21) 453 5295 Email: vitalstats@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 email: 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
For further information:
https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/administrativedata/administrativedatafaq/