About Us

CSO's Code of Practice on Statistical Confidentiality

Introduction

This Code of Practice relates to the protection of the confidentiality of the individual information relating to persons and undertakings collected by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The functions of the Office are set out in the Statistics Act, 1993:

"the collection, compilation, extraction and dissemination for statistical purposes of information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions in the State".

To this end, the Office receives information on individual persons, households, business and other undertakings. This information is obtained either directly in statutory or voluntary inquiries or indirectly from the administrative records of public authorities.

All individual information obtained by the CSO is treated as strictly confidential. The information is used solely for statistical purposes.

Results are published in aggregate form and great care is taken to ensure that details relating to an identifiable person or undertaking are not inadvertently divulged.

This confidentiality is guaranteed by law.

The CSO is a separate Office attached to the Department of the Taoiseach. This underlines the complete independence of the office and its Director General in the discharge of their statistical duties.