CSO's Code of Practice on Statistical Confidentiality
Statutory Protection
The CSO operates under the provisions of the Statistics Act, 1993. This continues and reinforces the confidentiality provisions of the earlier statistical legislation and imposes heavy penalties for the misuse of information collected by the Office.
The Act explicitly states that:
- All information furnished by a person, undertaking or public authority under this Act shall be used only for statistical compilation and analysis purposes.
- No information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments which can be related to an identifiable person or undertaking shall, except with the written consent of that person or undertaking or the personal representative or next-of-kin of a deceased person, be disseminated, shown or communicated to any person or body except as follows -
(a) for the purposes of a prosecution for an offence under this Act;
(b) to officers of statistics in the course of their duties under this Act;
(c) for the purposes of recording such information solely for the use of the Office in such form and manner as is provided for by a contract in writing made by the Director General which protects its confidentiality to his satisfaction.
The Office may, for statistical purposes only, assign codes derived from information collected under this Act classifying undertakings listed in the administrative systems of other public authorities by economic activity and size (perons engaged) categories.
The Taoiseach may by order prescribe such further prohibitions on the disclosure of identifiable records or information obtained under this Act or the repealed enactments for such periods as may be prescribed.
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require any person or undertaking to provide information in relation to a matter on which information was sought in curcumstances that would entitle the person or undertaking to decline to give the information in a civil proceeding in any court or on the grounds of privilege.
- The Office may provide, for statistical purposes only, information obtained in any way under this Act or the repealed enactments, in such form that it cannot be directly or indirectly related to an identifiable person or undertaking, to such persons and subject to such charges, conditions and restrictions as the Director General may determine.
- In the case of a Census of Population undertaken under this Act or under the repealed enactments, the restricitons of section 32 and 33 of this Act shall cease to apply 100 years after the date of the relevant Census.
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