Transparency notices

The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission is a statutory corporate body and is independent in the performance of its functions. It is the governing body of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. The Houses of the Oireachtas Service is the public service body that administers the National Parliament of Ireland (the Houses of the Oireachtas) on behalf of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. In this Privacy Notice, the two are generally referred to as the Service unless the context requires one or other entity to be specified. The address of the Service is Leinster House, Dublin 2. The Service is issuing this Transparency Notice because of its duties under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Personal information about an individual means any information about an individual from which the person can be identified. This Transparency Notice tells you how the Service uses personal information you give it when you input information into the visitor/enquiries system on visiting Leinster House.

When you register on the visitor/enquiries system the following categories of personal data are collected: Name, Organisation , Location, Name of your Host, Time of Visit and Departure Time. Your personal data is collected when you enter Leinster House and you are asked to fill out the fields on the visitor system.

The Service decides how and why your personal information is dealt with and is, accordingly, the controller of those personal data in accordance with the GDPR.

The Service deals with your personal information in order to record your attendance at Leinster House, to control access to the national parliament and its offices (and the offices of Members of the Houses), and for related security purposes.

Your personal data is collected for security purposes to ensure the health and safety of staff and visitors. The processing of your personal data is necessary and proportionate for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority. If you do not provide the personal information in question, the Service will not be able to grant you access to Leinster House.

The Service retains processors to provide information technology necessary for administering the visitors/enquiries system. They are bound by data processing agreements that secure your rights with regard to your personal information in accordance with the GDPR.

The Service will deal with your personal information where this is necessary to establish (including investigate), exercise, or defend a legal claim, including by disclosing it to its legal advisers and in proceedings before any relevant court, tribunal, arbitrator, mediator, or similar entity. Rarely, it may be necessary to share your personal information with An Garda Síochána. The Service will deal with your personal information if this is necessary in order to comply with a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The Service will also need to deal with your personal information if you exercise rights under data protection law. The Service will also need to deal with your personal information if you exercise rights under data protection law.

Your personal information will only be retained as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes it was collected for. Unless required for some specific purpose, it will be retained no longer than 6 years, and will then be disposed in accordance with the House of the Oireachtas File Plan and Retention Schedule. 

Your personal information is not transferred outside the EEA (ie the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). 

The following are the principal data rights applicable in the circumstances of this Privacy Notice.  You may ask the Service for a copy of your personal information. You may ask the Service to supplement or correct your personal information if it is incomplete or incorrect (including out of date). You may be able to ask the Service to delete personal information, especially if the Service no longer needs it, or not to deal with it for the time being, for example, if you think it is incorrect. You may object at any time to the Service’s dealing with personal information it is dealing with in the exercise of official authority or in the public interest, although this entitlement is subject to many legal qualifications depending on the personal information and why the Service is dealing with it. The Service must then cease dealing with the personal information unless it can show compelling grounds for continuing to do so.

If you are not content with how the Service is dealing with your personal information, you may bring your dissatisfaction to the attention of the Data Protection Commission: see www.dataprotection.ie.

The Service’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Jennifer McGrath and is your point of contact regarding this transparency notice. Her office number is +353 (1) 618 4712 and her email is dataprotection@oireachtas.ie. 

This Transparency Notice is regularly kept under review. Any updates will be placed on the Plinth and notified to you. The Transparency Notice was last updated in 2023.

This notice is issued by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission which is the governing body of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. The Houses of the Oireachtas Service is the public service body that administers the National Parliament of Ireland (the Houses of the Oireachtas) on behalf of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. In this notice, the two are generally referred to as the Service. The Service is responsible for the operation of a CCTV system which monitors the Oireachtas Complex (see Appendix 1).

This document is a notice about the CCTV system and applies to the parliamentary community. The "parliamentary community" includes Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, the staff employed by Members and by Political Parties, interns and those on work placements, political correspondents working in the Houses and the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service (Service staff). The notice also applies to visitors and members of the public.

The purpose of this notice is to set out how and why your personal data is collected on CCTV cameras, on what legal basis it is collected, how CCTV footage is managed by the Service and what your rights are in respect of CCTV footage containing your personal data.

This document applies to CCTV cameras that are managed by or on behalf of the Service (the CCTV system). This includes CCTV cameras that are located within buildings and on the exterior walls of buildings in the Oireachtas Complex. The Oireachtas Complex includes the buildings within the Leinster House Campus which are managed by the Office of Public Works and buildings outside the Leinster House Campus which are controlled by the Service (See Appendix 1 for full explanation of “Oireachtas Complex” and “Leinster House Campus”).

Not all the CCTV cameras within the Oireachtas Complex are managed by the Service and therefore this document does not apply to all CCTV footage recorded in the Complex.

CCTV cameras operated by An Garda Síochána are beyond the scope of this document, and any queries in relation to same must be directed towards An Garda Síochána. The Service may request access to such footage if it has an operational requirement to do so, but any such request is at the discretion of An Garda Síochána.

The CCTV system captures images only. It does not record sound or use facial recognition software.

Furthermore, the CCTV system captures images presented only. As a result, the CCTV system does not capture special category data1 save where the data subject makes this data apparent, for example, where the data subject is wearing an item of clothing which may indicate that they hold a specific religious belief.

The primary use of the CCTV system is as a physical security measure to deter, detect and assist in the investigation of any suspected or actual unauthorised access, security threat and/or criminal activity, including domestic and international terrorism, both within and external to the Oireachtas Complex, as well as assisting in the investigation of accidents and incidents, including the defence or prosecution of any resultant legal action. (The Service does not use the CCTV system to conduct general or ongoing monitoring of Service staff productivity, behaviour, or attendance.)

When CCTV is being used for the purpose outlined above, there are a number of lawful bases upon which the Service relies:

• The Service has legal obligations, including obligations to protect Service staff (including established and unestablished civil servants, and State industrial workers) (the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005) and, in respect of premises of which it is the occupier, visitors from harm (section 3 of the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1995);
• The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Acts 2003 to 2021 (including but not limited to section 4(1)(a) of the 2003 Act) provide for the functions of the Service. These include a duty to provide for the running of the Houses of the Oireachtas which, in turn, includes ensuring the physical security of parliament;
• Performance by the Service of its tasks in the public interest and exercise of official authority – and, where relevant, in pursuit of its legitimate interests – to prevent, detect, and bring to an end matters that might affect safety or security or that might amount to violations of the law;
• The Service’s advancement of its legitimate interests, and where relevant its duties under the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Acts 2003 to 2021, by establishing, exercising or defending legal claims;
• The need to protect the vital interests of the parliamentary community, visitors and members of the public.

All camera placements are designed to protect and safeguard security in or around the Oireachtas Complex.

Data controller

The Service is the data controller of footage captured by the cameras which are ‘in-scope’ of this document. Designated members of Service staff have responsibility for managing the operation, maintenance, and monitoring of the CCTV system, to ensure that it continues to promote the safety, security and operational needs of a modern parliament. In addition, other Service staff may be granted access to the CCTV system / footage in the course of their duties where this complies with the Service’s data protection obligations.

Data processor

Third-party security service providers licensed by the Private Security Authority (PSA) have been engaged to operate, maintain and monitor ‘in-scope’ cameras on behalf of the Service.

Signs have been erected to ensure that data subjects are properly informed of the presence and use of CCTV cameras in the Oireachtas Complex and the contact details of the Service’s Data Protection Officer (see below). 

CCTV footage is held in a secure environment for 30 days from the date of recording and then automatically overwritten.  Situations may arise where it is necessary to retain particular CCTV recordings for longer periods. In such a situation, the retained data will be logged and destroyed once the purpose for which it was retained has passed.  

The Service carefully secures all CCTV and takes significant operational and technical measures to prevent unauthorised access, interference and/or dissemination. The Oireachtas CCTV system is on a closed network and not connected to the internet.  Recordings can only be accessed by a select number of Service staff and third-party security staff, with recordings being held in a location that cannot be accessed without appropriate clearance. All staff with access to CCTV have been trained and subject to Garda vetting prior to employment. CCTV footage may be observed live by trained and vetted staff; live monitoring is strictly limited to authorised personnel from the Office of the Superintendent. The security arrangements in place are kept under ongoing review in conjunction with our partners.

An Garda Síochána

An Garda Síochána may request the Service to provide CCTV footage to assist with the investigation of a criminal matter. If An Garda Síochána requests a copy of CCTV footage, it must:

• be set out in writing on An Garda Síochána headed stationery;
• state that An Garda Síochána is investigating a criminal matter;
• be signed by a Garda of Inspector rank or higher;
• set out the details (date(s), time(s), duration and location) of the CCTV recording required; and
• cite the legal basis for the request; the legal basis for the transfer of CCTV footage to An Garda Síochána is set out in section 41(b) of the Data Protection Act 2018, namely: “preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting criminal offences”.

In urgent situations, a verbal request for CCTV footage may be sufficient. However, any such verbal request must be followed up with a formal written request. A log of all Garda requests for CCTV footage is maintained by the Office of the Superintendent.

Other Recipients within the EU

In the event that it becomes necessary to provide any other recipients, for example, external investigators, with access to CCTV footage, the Service will do so only to the extent that it complies with the Service’s data protection obligations.

Transfer of CCTV footage to a third country

CCTV footage captured by the Service is not in the normal course of events transferred to a third country. In the unlikely event that it becomes necessary to transfer CCTV footage to a third country, this will only be done after the Service has expressly given permission. The Service will do so only to the extent that it complies with the Service’s data protection obligations which include making sure that the appropriate measures are in place to ensure the security of the data.

The rights available to data subjects under the GDPR are listed and discussed in the general data protection policy of the Service (available here). No automated decision-making is conducted using CCTV. It is the policy of the Service to confirm a requester’s identity before providing personal data; a request for identification stops time running for the purposes of the 30-day time limit set by the GDPR.

The most common data protection right exercised by data subjects in relation to CCTV is the right of access, which, depending on the circumstances, can be met by the provision of copies of video footage or stills, or the arrangement of a viewing. Given the size of the Oireachtas Complex, and the fact that CCTV cameras can capture data relating to multiple data subjects at any one time, the co-operation of data subjects is required to identify appropriate materials in relation to a request for access. For instance, the Service would need to be informed where and at what times a data subject was within those grounds. Where third parties are present in CCTV footage, the Service may have to seek the consent of those persons before supplying the material or redact or pixilate their images.

An access request may be refused in whole or in part where, for example, one or more of the restrictions in section 60 of the Data Protection Act 2018 applies. This may occur where, in particular, it is necessary and proportionate:

• to safeguard cabinet confidentiality, parliamentary privilege, national security, defence and the international relations of the State;
• for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of criminal offences and the execution of criminal penalties; or
• in contemplation of or for the establishment, exercise, or defence of, a legal claim, prospective legal claim, legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings whether before a court, statutory tribunal, statutory body or an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

All data protection rights requests in relation to CCTV should be made to the Service’s Data Protection Officer, Jennifer McGrath.  Her office number is +353 1 618 4712 and her email is dataprotection@oireachtas.ie. The postal address of the Service is Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, D02 XR20. 

Oireachtas Complex includes the following:
Leinster House
Leinster House 2000
Kildare House
Agriculture House
91-93 Merrion Square West
1966 Block
Engineering Block
1932 Annex
Ministerial Block
Setanta House
Frederick House
Blocks C & D (Dáil chamber)
34-41 Lower Mount Street

Leinster House Campus includes the following:
Leinster House
Leinster House 2000
Blocks C & D (Dáil chamber)
1932 Annex
1966 Block
Engineering Block
Ministerial Block

These lists may be subject to change and will be reviewed at regular intervals.

This Privacy Notice is issued by the Houses of the Oireachtas Service (the “Service”). The Service is issuing this Privacy Notice because of its duties under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018. For more information about the Service please click here.

This Privacy Notice tells you how the Service, as data controller, deals with (including by way of collection, use, or disposal) your personal information when you are a customer of the Service, including when you make a complaint under its Customer Complaints Procedure.

This Privacy Notice also tells you how the Service, as data controller, deals with (including by way of collection, use, or disposal) your personal information when implementing its Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour. This Privacy Notice applies to any information supplied to the Service on your behalf. For the more general principles governing how the Service deals with your personal information to comply with the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, please consult the Service’s General Data Protection Policy, which also explains some of the terms used in this Privacy Notice. In respect of that personal information, the Service is the data controller.

The Service’s General Data Protection Policy sets out certain information common to most uses of personal information, including your rights in respect of your personal information, such as access and rectification, the Service’s duties in respect of transfer of data to a country outside the EEA, what you may do if you have a complaint about how your personal information is being, or has been, dealt with by the Service, and details of the Service’s Data Protection Officer.

For the purposes and on the legal bases set out below, the Service may collect personal
information as follows:

Customer Charter and Action Plan

When you are a customer of the Service, it may collect personal information including your name, your telephone number, your email address and/ or your postal address. The Service may also hold other personal information which may be disclosed by you in your communications with it. This personal information may be collected by the Service and used for the purpose of delivering customer services to you. The Service may also collect the above types of personal information if you provide comments or feedback on its performance in the delivery of customer services to you. The Charter also includes the Service’s Customer Complaints Procedure. When you make a complaint under the Customer Complaints Procedure, the Service requests that you provide your name, your telephone number, your email address and/ or your postal address. Other personal information may also be provided by you when setting out the grounds for your complaint. This personal information is collected by the Service and used for the purpose of processing your complaint in accordance with the procedure outlined in the Customer Complaints Procedure.

Policy for Dealing with Unreasonable Behaviour

When the Service is implementing its Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour, it may collect personal information including your name, your telephone number, your email address and/ or your postal address. The Service may also hold other personal information which may be disclosed by you in your communications with the Service. This personal information may be collected by the Service and used for the purpose of implementing its Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour.

Special categories of personal information

Certain types of personal information are subject to particular limits and protections for you in accordance with data protection law. These are known as special categories of data and relate to personal information about your race, ethnic background, political opinions, religion, philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union, health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Customer Charter and Action Plan

The Service will not request you to furnish any of the above special categories of personal information when you are its customer. However, it is possible that in some situations, special categories of personal information may be disclosed by you when you contact the Service. The Charter also includes the Service’s Customer Complaints Procedure. The Service will not request you to furnish any of the above special categories of personal information when making a complaint under the Customer Complaints Procedure. However, it is possible that in some situations, special categories of personal information may be disclosed to the Service by you as part of your complaint.

Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour

The Service will not collect special categories of personal information when implementing its Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour however in some situations it is possible that such special categories of personal information may be disclosed by you in your communications with the Service.

For the purposes and on the legal bases set out below, you may disclose to us personal information about allegations you have committed a crime, criminal convictions you have sustained, any security measures you are subject to related to criminal offending or convictions. These may be described as criminal offence data and our dealing with them is subject to particular limits and protections for you in accordance with data protection law. If you disclose to the Service special category personal information or criminal offence data in respect of another person, you acknowledge and confirm that you have the written consent of that person to disclose that information or data on his or her behalf.

Your personal information will not be used for marketing, nor for automatic profiling.

Customer Charter and Action Plan

The Service deals with your personal information for the purpose of providing you with customer services. Your personal information will be used by the Service in order to communicate with you and to deliver customer services to you. When you provide the Service with comments or feedback, your personal information may also be used for the purpose of evaluating the Service’s performance against the standards of service outlined in the Customer Charter and improving our performance. The Charter also includes the Service’s Customer Complaints Procedure. When you make a complaint, the Service will deal with your personal information for the purpose of examining your complaint against the standards of service outlined in its Customer Charter. Your personal information will also be used by the Service in order to communicate with you in relation to your complaint and to issue our response to you following the examination of your complaint. The Service will also deal with your personal information for the purpose of any request you make for a review into the handling of your complaint. Your personal information will be used by the Service to carry out this review, communicate with you and issue our response to you at the conclusion of the review.

Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour

The Service deals with your personal information for the purposes of managing any form of unreasonable behaviour by you in line with this Policy. The Service will deal with your personal information for the purposes of implementing this Policy, responding to instances of unreasonable behaviour and whenever it is considering the placing of restrictions on your access to the Service.
The Service deals with your personal information for the purposes of communicating with you in relation to any form of unreasonable behaviour under the Policy and when notifying you of any restrictions it is proposed to place on your access to the Service. Your personal information will also be used by the Service during any subsequent correspondence with you in relation to the management of your unreasonable behaviour and in the event that restrictions are put in place on your access to the Service. The Service will deal with your personal information for the purposes of filling in any incident forms which are completed in line with the Policy. Any such incident forms will be held by the Head of Safety in the Service. Your personal information will also be recorded in a restrictions log maintained by the Service in the case of any restrictions imposed under the Policy on your access to the Service. Access to the restrictions log is limited to heads of business units within the Service and appropriate staff members for the purpose of ensuring adherence to any restrictions that have been imposed in line with the Policy.

The Service relies on the following legal bases to deal with your personal information under both the Customer Charter and Action Plan and the Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour:

Customer Charter and Action Plan (including complaints under the Customer Complaints Procedure)

• The Service has legal obligations, including under The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Acts 2003 to 2021 (including but not limited to section 3A of the 2003 Act), which provide for the functions of the Service. These functions include the provision of support services to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Supporting the Houses of the Oireachtas requires the provision of customer services to customers of the Service which in turn means that customers must be able to avail of a complaints procedure.
• The performance by the Service of its tasks in the public interest and exercise of official authority and, where relevant, in pursuit of its legitimate interests, including the provision of customer services (together with a complaints procedure) in line with the standards outlined in the Customer Charter.
• The need to protect the vital interests of the parliamentary community, visitors and members of the public as customers of the Service.

Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour

• The Service has legal obligations, including obligations to protect Service staff and to ensure their safety and well-being in the workplace (including established and unestablished civil servants, and State industrial workers) (the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005).
• The need to protect the vital interests of the parliamentary community, visitors and members of the public as customers of the Service.

The Service carefully secures all personal information and takes significant operational and technical measures including suitable and specific measures, such as anonymisation, to prevent unauthorised access, interference and/ or dissemination of the personal information to which this Privacy Notice relates. Personal information is recorded securely within filing systems which are necessary for the operation of the Service’s functions. These systems are protected by safeguards such as access control, encryption and the Service’s firewalls. Access to these systems is limited to authorised members of staff only.

The Service retains data processors to assist it in processing data. They are bound by data processing agreements that secure your rights with regard to your personal information in accordance with the GDPR.

The Service rarely deals with the personal information to which this Privacy Notice applies for other purposes. Some generally permitted further uses are described in the Service’s General Data Protection Policy.

Your personal information will only be retained so long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes it was collected for. Personal information collected by the Service with respect to complaints under the Customer Complaints Procedure will be retained for a period of 8 years. In the case of personal information collected in connection with the implementation of the Policy for Responding to Unreasonable Behaviour (including any personal information recorded in the restrictions log), this will be retained for a period of 8 years from the date of the last communication between the Service and you arising under the Policy.

This Privacy Notice will be reviewed at regular intervals and updated as necessary.

From time to time social and commemorative events such as an annual former staff members’ dinner are organized. The organization of such events is currently undertaken on an event-by-event basis by individual organizers or an organizing committee convened for the particular purpose (in either instance in this Notice described as "Organizers"). These Organizers are "controllers" of relevant personal information for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR").

Being “controllers” means that the Organizers decide what happens to your personal information, and how it is dealt with. The Organizers generally avail of ICT facilities provided by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (the "Commission"), your former employer. The Commission is a "processor" of your personal information since it deals with your personal information on the Organizers’ behalf pursuant to a contract that ensures the security and lawful use of that information. Different Organizers are likely to be co-controllers with each other, either as joint controllers or independent controllers.

This Transparency Notice is being issued to facilitate the Organizers’ compliance with their duties under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. It tells you how the Organizers deal with (including by way of collection, use, or disposal) personal information you give them to enable them to let you know about events they are organizing and invite you to attend. The Transparency Notice applies to any information duly supplied to the Organizers on your behalf.

If the Organizers get in touch with you using the contact details you provide, they will identify themselves clearly in respect of the particular event they are organizing and in which they believe you may be interested. In respect of the collection of contact details to which this Transparency Notice applies, the current Organizer is the Private Secretary to the Clerk of the Dáil; however, the Private Secretary collects the data as Organizer rather than in the course of that employment.

The only personal information with which this Transparency Notice is concerned is those contact details you provide to the Organizers with your consent so that they can notify you about forthcoming events organized by them for former members of Oireachtas staff. The Organizers do not collect or deal with any sensitive types of personal information in the context of this Notice. Your personal information will not be used for marketing. A different Transparency Notice may be appropriate and necessary in respect of the event itself.

Depending on the contact details you wish to provide, these may extend to name, personal address, email address, and various types of telephone number. Given that the purpose of collection is social and commemorative the Organizers would advise that details that in the context might be considered less relevant, such as a current work address or telephone number, should not be provided.

Among the principles of lawful dealing with personal information are that it must only be dealt with for purposes consistent with those for which it was collected and that it must be kept accurate and up to date. It is therefore important for the Organizers to have available to them your most recent contact details so that no question might arise of notice of an event going to the wrong address or of communication being addressed to a former member of staff after they have died. The Organizers believe that

• their identity is distinct from that of the Commission as your former employer and from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as the authority responsible for paying your pension (if applicable), and
• the purpose of notifying you of forthcoming events is different from the purposes for which the Commission dealt with your contact details and payment of any pension by that Department.

Accordingly, they believe it would be more appropriate if they collected your contact details for the purpose of notifying you of forthcoming events further to a separate and specific consent given by you. Naturally, therefore, they will only use those details to notify you of those events if you decide to give that consent.

Withdrawal and renewal of consent

You may withdraw your consent to the Organizers’ dealing with your personal information as governed by this Transparency Notice at any time and the Organizers will forthwith, but without prejudice to the validity of dealing with the information before that withdrawal, stop dealing with that information. You will be provided with means that allow the withdrawal of consent as easily as those by which you provided it. Naturally, if you do withdraw consent, that will mean that Organizers will not be able to let you know of events you might potentially be interested in.

In order to ensure that your personal information in the form of contact details at which you may be notified of events is accurate and up to date, any consent to which this Transparency Notice applies will be treated as valid until 31 December in the year in which it is first given, and after that for 24 months (unless you withdraw the consent sooner). The relevant Organizer will write to you before the consent expires asking if you wish to renew your consent for a further 24 months. If that Organizer does not receive a response within 21 days of the date of the communication, your contact details will be securely deleted.

Your contact details will be dealt with on behalf of the Organizers by the Commission as processor and will therefore be protected by the technical measures addressing online security, risk of data loss, alteration of data, or unauthorized access applicable to parliamentary and administrative data processed by the Commission in the performance of its statutory functions. These include logging restrictions in the form of frequently changed passwords, logging records, appropriate data protection training, and prompt and regular deletion of outdated, superfluous, or redundant information. Access to the database will be controlled as an organizational measure so as to be limited to Organizers who have need of your information for the purposes set out in this Transparency Notice from time to time, and then only from devices that assure against the compromising of that security, including the risks or unauthorized engagement with the information already mentioned. 

The Organizers obtain personal information relevant to this Transparency Notice from you or from persons who you have duly authorized to provide information on your behalf. The Commission retains data sub-processors to assist it in processing data; these are bound by data processing agreements that secure your rights with regard to your personal information in accordance with the GDPR. Apart from this, and any recipients covered by “Further dealing” below, the only recipients will be Organizers who are in charge of specific events in which you may wish to participate. Participation may involve passing your personal information on to other third persons (for example, to process a payment or gain access to particular premises) but information about this in connection with particular events will be available from a further Transparency Notice drawn up for the event in question.

The Service rarely deals with your personal information to which this Transparency Notice applies for other purposes; for example, in principle It is conceivable that your personal information could be disclosed to a legal adviser retained by the Organizers, or, where this is legally required, to another public authority.

Personal information the Association deals with and to which this Transparency Notice applies will be kept within the EU.

Personal information to which this Transparency Notice applies will be securely deleted forthwith if you withdraw your consent to the Organizers’ dealing with it or at the end of the current interval for which you afforded consent if you decline to renew your consent, or do not reply within the 21 days mentioned, as contemplated at "Withdrawal and renewal of consent" above. This paragraph is subject to any legal requirement that requires longer retention or retention for purposes of "Further dealing" as set out above. 

You may ask the relevant Organizer(s) for a copy of your personal information. You may ask the relevant Organizer(s) to supplement or correct your personal information if it is incomplete or incorrect (including out of date). You may be able to ask the relevant Organizer(s) to delete personal information, especially if you have withdrawn consent to its being dealt with or the relevant Organizer(s) no longer need(s) it, or not to deal with it for the time being, for example, if you think it is incorrect. If the relevant Organizer(s) deal(s) with your personal information on the basis of your consent, or because the dealing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party, you can normally require the relevant Organizer(s) to forward it on to some other person named by you. 

If you are not content with how the relevant Organizer(s) is/are dealing with your personal information, you may bring your dissatisfaction to the attention of the Data Protection Commission: see www.dataprotection.ie. 

This Transparency Notice is regularly kept under review. Any updates will be placed on the website www.oireachtas.ie and notified to you. The Transparency Notice was last updated in 2023. 

University College Dublin, the University of Iceland and the University of Essex, in partnership with the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission/Houses of the Oireachtas Service

This Transparency Notice is being issued because of the duties of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service (the “Service”) under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.  You will have accessed it through a link in the Information Note about the survey provided by the Research Team who are conducting it with the support and encouragement of the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.  Details of the team and further information about the purposes of the survey can be found in the Information Note.

This Notice tells you about how far the Service will determine the means and purposes of dealing with personal information you may supply in answer to the survey. In particular, the Service has proposed some of the questions in the Questionnaires, encourages and facilitates your participation, and uses the anonymized statistical product to enhance how it performs its statutory functions.  For more detailed information on the Service’s discharge of its GDPR duties and definition of relevant terms, see the Service’s General Data Protection Policy. If you are not content with how your personal information is being dealt with, you may bring your dissatisfaction to the attention of the Data Protection Commission: see www.dataprotection.ie. 

University College, Dublin (UCD) has arranged pursuant to Article 26 of the GDPR with the Research Team members to take principal responsibility for compliance with the law about dealing with your personal information and to secure your data protection rights, for example, rights such as data access under Chapter III of the GDPR. The Research Team will provide you with contact details of UCD’s Data Protection Officer. Without prejudice to that arrangement, you may exercise your GDPR rights in respect of and against each of the Research Team and the Service.

The Research Team deals in the public interest with your personal information for academic and statistical purposes. The Service deals with the anonymized information to enhance how it performs its statutory functions to provide advice and support services to the Houses of the Oireachtas, their Committees, and their Members. For these purposes and on the legal basis set out below, personal information about your political opinions will be collected in conducting the survey. This is known as special category data/information and dealing with it is subject to additional limits and protections for you in accordance with data protection law. In particular, the Consent Forms and Questionnaires will be stored separately, and such technical and organizational measures will be taken in respect of them ("pseudonymization") that no one outside the Research Team, including any data processors, will be able to attribute or link to any Member any set of answers to the Questionnaires or personal information in them.

You will, in the Consent Form, if you participate, expressly agree in writing to your special category information being dealt with in accordance with the Information Note and this Notice.  Other than as pseudonymized and set out in that data protection information, the Research Team will not share your personal information with anyone. 

• UCD: Articles 6(1)(e), 9(2)(a), 85, and 89 of the GDPR and ss. 42 and 43 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (Ireland).
• University of Iceland: GDPR as applied by Icelandic law and Article 3(7) of Act 90/2018 on Privacy and Processing of Personal Data.
• University of Essex: Data Protection Act 2018 [UK] and the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

In substance, Iceland and the UK form part of the same data protection zone as the EU and your personal information will not be transferred outside that zone. The Service only deals with the anonymized statistical product of the survey which helps it to perform its functions under s. 3a of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Act 2003. 

The Research Team has identified you as an addressee of the survey from public sources, and obtains personal information about you relevant to this Transparency Notice from your Consent Form and replies. The Research Team and Service retain data processors to assist them in processing data. They are bound by data processing agreements that secure your rights regarding your personal information in accordance with the GDPR. In particular, the University of Essex has such a contract with a United States company called Qualtrics International Inc., 333 W River Park Drive, Provo, Utah 84604, (“Qualtrics”). The survey is being carried out electronically using the University of Essex’s Qualtrics platform and Qualtrics’ German-based cloud server. When collection of information is complete, the data will be transferred to and stored on a secure cloud drive operated by the University of Essex, becoming the sole and pseudonymized copy of the dataset and, once the project’s results have been disseminated in publications, the data will be deleted as set out in the Information Note.

The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission is a statutory corporate body and is independent in the performance of its functions. It is the governing body of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. The Houses of the Oireachtas Service is the public service body that administers the National Parliament of Ireland (the Houses of the Oireachtas) on behalf of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. In this Privacy Notice, the two are generally referred to as the Service unless the context requires one or other entity to be specified. The address of the Service is Leinster House, Dublin 2. The Service is issuing this Transparency Notice because of its duties under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Personal information about an individual means any information about an individual from which the person can be identified.  This Transparency Notice tells you how the Service uses personal information you give it when you register to use the Documents Laid system.

The personal information that you provide when you self-register will be your contact details for your Department, office or place of employment. The categories of personal data the Service collects are as follows: name, grade, work address, and work contact details.

The Service decides how and why your personal information is dealt with and is, accordingly, the controller of those personal data in accordance with the GDPR.

The Service deals with your personal information in order to facilitate you in laying documents in accordance with the Standing Orders of the Houses and any applicable legislation.

The processing of your personal data is necessary and proportionate for the performance of a task carried out in the exercise of official authority or in discharge of a legal obligation. Certain documents are laid in accordance with a duty imposed by particular legislation. Under the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Act 2003, it is the duty of the Commission to provide for the running of the Houses, which includes providing library services. The manner in which a document is to be laid is, in accordance with Part 13 of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures Act 2013) that provided for in the Standing Orders of each House.

If you do not provide the personal information in question, the Service will not be able to receive documents from you to be laid, which may put your Department, office or place of employment in breach of a legal obligation.

This information will be used for the purposes of administering the Documents Laid process; for example the Service might contact you if there is a problem with a document being laid.

The Service retains processors to provide information technology necessary for administering the Documents Laid system. They are bound by data processing agreements that secure your rights with regard to your personal information in accordance with the GDPR. The Service does not regularly deal with personal information you supply for the purposes set out in this Transparency Notice for any further purposes. One instance where the Service might deal with your personal information for an additional purpose is in order to comply with a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The Service will also need to deal with your personal information if you exercise rights under data protection law. The Service might also exceptionally have to deal with your personal information, for example, if required by law or in order to advance or defend a legal claim, but those exceptions are very unlikely to arise in the context of this Privacy Notice.

Your personal data will be kept for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose of administering the Document Laid process.

Your personal information is not transferred outside the EEA (ie the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway).

The following are the principal data rights applicable in the circumstances of this Privacy Notice. You may ask the Service for a copy of your personal information. You may ask the Service to supplement or correct your personal information if it is incomplete or incorrect (including out of date). You may be able to ask the Service to delete personal information, especially if the Service no longer needs it, or not to deal with it for the time being, for example, if you think it is incorrect. You may object at any time to the Service’s dealing with personal information it is dealing with in the exercise of official authority or in the public interest, although this entitlement is subject to many legal qualifications depending on the personal information and why the Service is dealing with it. The Service must then cease dealing with the personal information unless it can show compelling grounds for continuing to do so.

If you are not content with how the Service is dealing with your personal information, you may bring your dissatisfaction to the attention of the Data Protection Commission: see www.dataprotection.ie

The Service’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Jennifer McGrath and is your point of contact regarding this Privacy Notice. Her office number is +353 1 618 4712 and her email is dataprotection@oireachtas.ie.

This Transparency Notice is regularly kept under review. Any updates will be placed on the Plinth and notified to you. The Transparency Notice was last updated on 9th December 2020.

On 20 September 2024, the Houses of the Oireachtas Service (parliamentary administration, otherwise the Service/we/us/our) will host visitors to Leinster House as part of the annual all-island Culture Night – Oíche Chultúir – 2024 (the event). Where appropriate, the Service includes the Houses themselves and its governing body the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. Photos and/or video will be taken in designated areas, signposted and/or flagged by clearly designated Service employees on the Leinster House staff.

For more detail on the Service’s data protection compliance and on relevant terminology, see its General Data Protection Policy. If you are not content with how your personal information is being dealt with, you may complain to the Data Protection Commission.

Personal information means any information about someone from which the person can be identified. For this event it includes information you provided or that was provided about you when your ticket was booked through Eventbrite like name, postal address, email address, and telephone/mobile number. This is Eventbrite’s up-to-date privacy policy. Personal information will also be collected for safety/security purposes on CCTV for which we have this transparency policy.

This Transparency Notice is mainly concerned with photos and video and related sound recording (all images for the purpose of the Notice) taken on behalf of the Service at the event. These include:

• Unfocused background images you cannot be identified from (not normally considered personal information
• Images of features of the event where participants are readily visible – these we may take without your consent in our promotion and provision of the event. Where you may be recorded in this way we must warn you so you can avoid your image/voice being captured and you will at all times see notice of the presence of the relevant recording equipment. You may be able to object to further dealing with your image as advised in our General Data Protection Policy
• Individual, to camera images (photo and or video), will only be taken with your consent, and about these our official photographer/videographer and or personnel will speak directly with you or a parent/guardian in relation to a child. “Video” almost always involves voice recording as well. You may withdraw consent at any time, in particular by emailing Jason.Kiernan@oireachtas.ie, but without affecting anything done before (in practice this often means before publication)

The Service is not responsible for images taken by arrangement with media personnel not employed by it who are at the event.

The Service will use images, including images that are personal information, on its internal network/intranet, the external Oireachtas website (www.oireachtas.ie), communication with the media (broadcast, print and digital), on official Oireachtas social media accounts, and on Oireachtas TV, as well as in other various digital and print formats. Print formats include any or all official publications and reports of the Houses of the Oireachtas such as the Annual Report.

Apart from this, your personal information is also collected for safety/security purposes and to verify you as a ticket holder.

The Service will share images for the mentioned purposes as requested by broadcast, print, digital, and other media.

The Service retains data processors bound by data processing agreements that secure your legal personal information rights such as under the GDPR. The Freedom of Information Act 2014 applies to the Service but subject to the exceptions in the Act. The Service will not share your personal information with a third person not mentioned in this Notice unless this is a strict legal requirement.

The Service secures all personal information that this Privacy Notice relates to and takes robust and effectual operational and technical measures to prevent unauthorised access to it, interference with it, and/or its unauthorised dissemination.

Our dealing with your personal information will not involve its being transferred to a country not protected by the GDPR or equivalent.

Your personal information will only be retained so long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes mentioned in this Notice. In any event, your personal information will be deleted from storage within 6 months at the latest and will not be newly disclosed/circulated after that (subject to the continuation of existing uses such as the broadcast of previously made programmes). Some information may be transferred to the parliamentary archive for long-term preservation.

You agree under statute that the Service is the sole owner of all copyright and other rights arising from the images and that the Service retains final editorial, technical and artistic control over them. You are not entitled to receive any form of payment from the Service in connection with the images, or the event. You release and discharge the Service from any and all claims that may be received in connection with the images or event, whether arising out of any of the uses above or otherwise. We cannot guarantee how third parties will use your personal information and you also release and discharge the Service from any and all claims that may be received in connection with the images and event including claims based on breach of privacy, data protection, copyright, or defamation.

Privacy notice for staff of members of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Deputies and Senators) and staff of political parties

The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission is a statutory corporate body and is independent in the performance of its functions. It is the governing body of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. The Houses of the Oireachtas Service is the public service body that administers the National Parliament of Ireland (the Houses of the Oireachtas) on behalf of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. In this Privacy Notice, the two are generally referred to as the Service.

The address of the Service is Leinster House, Dublin 2. The Service is issuing this Privacy Notice because of its duties under the General Data Protection Regulation.

The Service’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Jennifer McGrath and is your point of contact regarding this Privacy Notice. Her office number is +353 1 618 4712 and her email is dataprotection@oireachtas.ie

Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) are either Deputies (TDs) or Senators. The Service provides secretarial facilities pursuant to statute to Members in the form of providing a
payroll service. That is to say, you are employed by the Member, and the Service pays you on the Member’s behalf. This applies to secretarial assistants, parliamentary assistants, and equivalent grades. Similar statutory provision is made for the benefit of political parties, members of which have been elected to the Houses. The Service also provides a payroll facility in respect of other staff known as temporary vouched employees (TVEs), who may be retained by Deputies only. If you are a TVE, you are retained by the Deputy who is employing you, and (s)he can (within prescribed limits) reclaim his or her payment to you out of the allowance provided to him or her to cover the expenses of public representation. The Service can set up a facility to make these payments to you on the Deputy’s behalf. Members from time to time retain other staff, for example, staff hired from employment agencies and self-employed secretarial service providers.

The Service is setting out in this Privacy Notice the grounds on which it will deal with personal information about you, and about other people arising from your relationship with the Service, as well as some common examples. Stricter rules apply to personal information which is described as special category data (see page 8) and criminal offence data (see page 9). The Service is also letting you know what conditions apply when it deals with personal information. Where a change in circumstances arises, not covered by this Privacy Notice, the Service will update this notice accordingly.

You should consult the Service’s Acceptable Usage Policy in relation to your use of the Service’s ICT equipment and facilities.

(a) Entry of Members’ employees onto the payroll. If you are employed by a Member or party (rather than being a contractor, for example), is the Member’s or party’s responsibility to manage all facets of the employment relationship, including recruitment, that do not arise in respect of the payroll function. The benefit of the payroll function is extended to the Member or party subject to legislation (for example, the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act 1962 and the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act 1938, both as amended), regulations, and, where applicable, decisions of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. 

The key points are:

• The Service will require you to enable An Garda Síochána to provide security clearance through the security clearance process. While recruitment is wholly a matter for your employer, the Service does set conditions for supporting retention of staff at certain grades, and for certain levels of payment. For example, if a Deputy or party wishes to retain you as a Parliamentary Assistant, you must provide the Service with particulars of your education, skills, and experience on a prescribed form, and redacted details are sent to an external company retained under contract with the Service for independent assessment. Without the information referred to in this paragraph, the Service may not be able to support your employment by the Member or party, or permit you to have access to Leinster House, and the practical effect may be that the Member or party will not employ you.
• The Service will deal with personal information in order to manage the payroll service it provides to a Member or party as your employer. For example, it will deal with that information in order to pay your salary, to manage the financial consequences of any leave you take, and to make a voluntary early retirement (VER) package or pension payment to you or, where applicable, members of your family. Compliance with legislation in or about employment law that does not directly relate to payment, such as unfair dismissals, employment equality, health and safety, qualification for redundancy, working hours and annual leave, is wholly your employer’s responsibility. But the Service will process your personal data in order to ensure that you are, where your contract contemplates this, paid during authorised absences and for overtime, and receive any redundancy payment you are entitled to. Third party data processing agreements are in place when outside organisations such as Fujitsu, BearingPoint, or CorePay process personal information on behalf of the Service.
• A fuller list of the personal information the Service deals with for these purposes can be found on page 7 below. Dealing with your personal information may also be necessary for entering into or performing a contract with a third person (other than the Member or party that employs you), for example, where the Service organises training for you with a third party provider.
•  The Service will need, from time to time, to deal with special category data and criminal offence data. It will deal with special category data where the need arises from your rights and duties around employment law or social welfare law. The Service will only deal with personal information on any of these bases if the dealing is also authorised by law or by a legally binding collective agreement. Examples of where the Service will deal with special category data are medical information provided in relation to sick leave or maternity leave.The Service will deal with criminal offence data about you where that dealing is necessary and proportionate in order to take steps at your request before a Member or party enters into a contract of employment with you, in particular in relation to security clearance, or if a criminal allegation is made against you, for example in relation to your receipt of payments.

(b) Legal obligation. The Service will deal with your personal information where the law requires it to do so. For example, it needs your PPS Number and salary details to make correct returns to the Revenue Commissioners. Not providing the information could lead to you paying either too much or too little tax. The Service may have to make deductions from your salary by court order or statutory Revenue Notice. Failure to provide the relevant information may lead to criminal or Revenue penalties being imposed. The Service is subject to some reporting duties (non-compliance with which is an offence), such as to report suspicions of theft and other forms of dishonesty specified in the Criminal Justice Act 2011. The Service, as a public body, is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and your name as a recipient of public funds, for example, may be identified in the course of answering a request. The Service will also need to deal with your personal information if you exercise rights under data protection law.

(c) Vital interests of the person referred to. The Service is allowed to deal with a person’s personal information in order to protect the vital interests of the person or of some other person. It will ask for details such as name and phone number of your next of kin in case there is an emergency. 

(d) Establishment exercise or defence of legal claims. The Service will deal with your personal information (including special category data and criminal offence data where this is necessary to establish (including investigate), exercise, or defend a legal claim, including by disclosing it to its legal advisers and in proceedings before any relevant court, tribunal, arbitrator, mediator, or similar entity.

(e) Public interest. The Service may deal with personal information in the public interest. One instance that might best be included under this heading is where, as a condition of your being supported by the Service with training, you are asked to evaluate your experience. This is to help the Service use taxpayers’ money effectively and prudently.

(f) Other interests. The Service will deal with personal information where this is justified on a balancing of its own objectives and purposes with the privacy or other rights of a person to whom the personal information relates. This may be done in the pursuit of the Service’s legitimate interests outside its statutory functions. The Service will ensure this type of dealing with your personal information is carried out proportionately. For example, the Service may need to clarify a particular entitlement to payment with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which establishes the Scheme for Secretarial Assistance under which you are paid. The Service will also share specific and limited information about you with other Government Departments where it shares facilities such as accommodation for your employer or car parking.

(g) Consent. In general, the Service will not ask you to consent to its using personal information that it could not use on one of the other grounds mentioned in this Privacy Notice. However, you may consent to the Service’s dealing with additional personal information where this is clearly for your benefit. Examples include deductions from your salary to pay your private health insurance, and the Service’s providing information at your request in connection with your applying for a mortgage or a medical/GP visit card. Another example is supplying your personal mobile phone number for retention by a single point of contact so that you may be notified if the offices of the Service are unexpectedly closed. You are not required by your terms of employment to travel outside the EU, but if you volunteer to do so (for example, where your employer is a member of a Committee), the Service may ask you to permit information from your passport to be transmitted directly to authorities in your country of destination and/or to the relevant travel agent and travel insurance company.

For the Service to fulfil its legal duty to safeguard your privacy, it needs to record your consent. If you are asking the Service to deal with special category data and criminal offence data by consent, the Service will usually need your consent in writing. You can withdraw your consent at any time. This won’t affect how the Service has already dealt with the personal information, but the Service will not deal with the personal information any more. You can withdraw your consent at least as easily as the way you gave it (for example, if the personal information is neither special category data nor criminal offence data and you gave consent orally, you may withdraw it orally).

Some of the above particulars will not be relevant if you are self-employed. However, the Service will need to deal with your identity details, security clearance, invoice particulars (such as VAT No. (if applicable) and the amounts billed), and tax clearance.

If the Service deals with personal information about you and you have not yourself given the Service that information, the Service must tell you promptly where it got the information. This is subject to some limited and specific exceptions allowed by law. The Service is likely to get information about you from the Member or party that employs you. It will, in respect of your recruitment, get information from An Garda Síochána in the process of security clearance. It may also get information about you from your party administrator (if any) and colleagues. The Service will deal with information from your GP and other medical sources in relation to sick leave and maternity leave. It will normally get information from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection about any illness benefit paid to you when you were on sick pay or maternity, paternity, or adoptive benefit payable when you were on paid maternity, paternity, or adoptive leave; the Service is entitled to have these mandated (signed over) to it. Among the limited exceptions from the Service’s duty to tell you where it got personal information about you, two significant instances are where it would involve disproportionate effort to tell you, or telling you would be inconsistent with a legitimate reason why the information was given to the Service.

The following, in particular, are likely to receive personal information from the Service about you:

• The Member or party that employs you
• Your party administrator, if any
• If a query arises about your entitlement under the Scheme for Secretarial Assistance (which regulates matters such as salary, overtime, sick leave, and VER packages), necessary personal information will be provided to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which operates the Scheme, to enable the query to be answered
• Your employment history may be relevant to pension and other matters should you take up certain other positions in the civil or public service, and details will be provided to your new employer or paying authority accordingly
• If the Service deals with your personal information to facilitate, for example, an application to the bank or to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, that will define who gets it
• If there is an emergency, the Service will pass personal information about you to your next of kin
• If you were to bring a personal injuries claim against the Service, it would be passed to the State Claims Agency for management
• Rarely, your personal information may be disclosed to the Service’s legal advisers, or to other people or bodies connected with a legal dispute, or to An Garda Síochána.

It will be rare that any personal information the Service deals with and to which this Privacy Notice applies will be transferred to a country outside the EU (including to the country’s diplomatic mission within it). One instance where this will occur is where you agree to travel outside the EU in the course of your work, for example, to accompany a Committee member. A number of legal bases may be involved here (booking travel and visa applications, for example). The Service has no control over what foreign authorities do with your personal information. The Service will try to give you greater and more directed warning of possible risks in advance of your travelling to a particular country.

The Service will keep personal information only as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice or as required by law. Further details will be issued in due course based on guidance to the issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

It would be unusual for the Service to deal with personal information for a purpose other than the purpose for which it received the information. But such further dealing is required on occasion, and instances are given in the section “Who will get the personal information?” and elsewhere in this Privacy Notice.

You may ask the Service for a copy of your personal information. You may ask the Service to supplement or correct your personal information if it is incomplete or incorrect (including out of date). You may be able to ask the Service to delete personal information, especially if you have withdrawn consent to the Service’s dealing with it or the Service no longer needs it, or not to deal with it for the time being, for example, if you think it is incorrect. If the Service is dealing with your personal information on the basis of your consent or a contract to which you are party, you can normally require the Service to forward it on to some other person named by you. You may object at any time to the Service’s dealing with personal information it is dealing with in the exercise of official authority or in the public interest, although this entitlement is subject to many legal qualifications depending on the personal information and why the Service is dealing with it. You may also object to the balance the Service has struck between advancing its legitimate interests and your rights where that ground is applicable. The Service must then cease dealing with the personal information unless it can show compelling grounds for continuing to do so. You are entitled not to be subject to automated decision making, including profiling.

If you are not content with how the Service is dealing with your personal information, you may bring your dissatisfaction to the attention of the Data Protection Commission: see www.dataprotection.ie.

This Privacy Notice is regularly kept under review. Any updates will be placed on this Website and notified to you. The Privacy Notice was last updated on 9th July 2019.

1. For general identification and administration purposes: name (including signature); address; date of birth; personnel number; grade; security clearance records; application for ID badge and photograph for it; contact details such as office extension, office email, other work email, and work mobile phone; (where applicable) name of employee whose duties are being covered; name (including signature) and grade of relevant staff member of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service.
2. In order to ensure that you are paid and for compliance with tax and PRSI obligations: PPS Number; bank details; name (including signature) of your employer; (if applicable) name of your employer’s party; (if applicable) name of your party administrator; salary details; (in relation to applications under the incremental credits scheme) work history and references from and particulars (including signature) of previous employers (or manager(s), director(s) or other contact(s)), records of communications between Service and same; other records relating to increments, allowances and expenses.
3. For performing the Service’s payroll function in relation to your contract of employment with the Member or party that employs you: Oireachtas employment history; records relating to leave, such as annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave, adoptive leave, and carer’s leave (some of these require particulars of third persons including, in relation to maternity, paternity, and adoptive leave, the child’s name and date of birth/placement, in relation to sick leave, maternity leave, and paternity leave, records of contact between the Service and the Department of Social Protection, in relation to sick leave, particulars of the illness and, where appropriate, the certifying doctor, and, in relation to carer’s leave, the name of the person being cared for); overtime records; work-sharing, work pattern, and related records; (if you are applying for retention as Parliamentary Assistant) nationality, educational attainments, skills, and work experience (including previous political employer, if any), intended employer and party (if any); location and accommodation details for travel and subsistence claims; information needed for recovery of overpayments; ICT usage records; redundancy details and records.
4. Information necessary to ascertain your qualification to be considered for a VER payment; information in relation to your pension entitlement (this includes particulars of previous duties in the civil or public service, and may include details of family members).

Special Category Data means personal information about a person’s:

• race
• ethnic background
• political opinions
• religion
• philosophical beliefs
• membership of a trade union
• genes (biological inheritance)
• biometric data (such as fingerprints on a passport)
• health
• sex life
• sexual orientation.

Criminal offence data means personal information about a person’s:

• alleged commission of criminal offences
• criminal convictions
• being subject to security measures related to criminal offences or convictions.

Currently under review by DPER and will be furnished in due course in line with that Department’s guidance.

The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission is a statutory corporate body and is independent in the 
performance of its functions. It is the governing body of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service. The Houses of the Oireachtas Service is the public service body that administers the National Parliament of Ireland (the Houses of the Oireachtas) on behalf of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. In this Privacy Notice, the two are generally referred to as the Service.

The address of the Service is Leinster House, Dublin 2. The Service is issuing this Privacy Notice because of its duties under the General Data Protection Regulation.

The Service’s Data Protection Officer is Jennifer McGrath. Her office number is +353 1 618 4712 and her email is dataprotection@oireachtas.ie.

The Service deals with your personal information as Member in a number of contexts. The most important, perhaps, is in the context of providing support services to Members under the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Act. These are services that are inexorably connected with your work as a legislator and public representative. They also include necessary incidents of that work and those services, such as payment of your salary.

Stricter rules apply to some types of personal information which may be described as special category data and criminal offence data (see below for more information). Bear in mind that, while a person’s political opinions are in principle special category data, the law that protects personal information specifically allows it to be dealt with by others where it has been manifestly made public by the person referred to.

The Service is also letting you know what conditions apply (often to protect your privacy) to how it can deal with personal information. If unusual circumstances arise not covered by this Privacy Notice, the Service will communicate with you specifically about these.

For the use by you or your staff of Oireachtas ICT equipment and facilities, see this important link.

Performance by the Service of its legal functions. The Service will deal with your personal information for the purpose of the administration of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission and its committees. In addition, the Service may at times deal with your personal information for the purpose of supporting the business of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, and Committees of either or both Houses.

(a) Among other services for the provision of which we need your personal information are payment of your salary, expenses, allowances, and pension. So, for example, the Service will need your bank account details so that it can pay your salary by electronic transfer into your bank account. If you avail of your entitlement to Parliamentary Standard Allowance you must provide the Service with the information needed to assess the level of your entitlement. In respect of the travel and accommodation element, you must provide the Service with the address of your normal place of residence and the distance from your normal place of residence to Leinster House, and it will record your attendance at Leinster House and deal with those records (including your party whip’s reconciliation of your attendance or pairing, if appropriate) in accordance with the relevant Regulations. You will need to produce a medical certificate signed by a doctor if you seek to avail of an ill-health reconciliation in respect of this allowance (this will be returned to you). If you engage in travel relevant to your parliamentary duties that justifies your non-attendance you must furnish evidence of the travel; if the travel is not as a member of an Oireachtas Committee you will need to furnish your party whip’s approval. The Service will likewise deal with any claim by you for the public representation element of that Allowance as required by the Regulations (for the audit of this see below). In respect of both elements of the allowance, the Service will deal with your confirmation that you have used the funds for the permitted purposes, and the processing of any overpayments. Where the Service makes a direct payment to a third person on your behalf (e.g. payment for secretarial facilities supplied by a business or a self-employed service provider or to a temporary vouched employee on the payroll as your employee), you must provide appropriate particulars, tax and bank details and vouchers to the Service. The Service will also deal with your personal information where you opt to waive your Parliamentary Standard Allowance in full or in part. Where the secretarial facilities afforded to you by statute allow you an option as to the type of support you may receive, you must indicate to the Service which option you have selected. If you avail of the direct purchase scheme for mobile phones you must provide your mobile phone number, details of the item bought, any claimable associated expenses, the cost, vouched by appropriate invoices, receipts, and proof of payment, and any applicable call credit. The Service is responsible by statute for refunding travel expenses you incur as member of an Oireachtas Committee, and, in order for the service to refund you, you must provide particulars of the travel, its purpose, and who accompanied you, and other information such as car mileage, accommodation, subsistence and sustenance deductible, with relevant vouchers.

The Service will deal with your personal information to provide you with any information you automatically receive in your capacity as legislator or public representative.

The Service will also deal with personal information in the context of staffing, accommodation (including expenses declared and relevant vouchers if Constituency Office Establishment Allowance is claimed), procedural advice, legal advice, provision of equipment, ICT supports and services, telephony services, access control (including fob replacement) , and Library & Research support and services. For example, where the Service performs a payroll function in respect of your staff, it needs details of the staff in question and their bank details.

While the performance of the above functions often represents an exercise of official authority as contemplated by the GDPR, the Service’s dealing with personal information will regularly involve a combination of that exercise and its fulfilment of a legal obligation to deal with the same information.

(a) Legal obligation. The Service will deal with your personal information where the law requires it to do so. For example, it needs your PPS Number and details of your salaries and allowances, so that it can make correct returns to the Revenue Commissioners. Not providing the information could lead to you paying either too much tax or, at the risk to you and the Service of various types of legal sanction, too little. The pension arrangements that apply to you will be different if you were retained in the public or civil service in the 26 weeks before your election, and the Service requires that information accordingly. The Service will also deal with your personal information for the purposes of paying your pension. Under the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 you must, if you are to receive certain payments including salary as a Member, make a declaration whether you are already in receipt of a public sector pension or enjoy a preserved benefit to such a pension. Not to supply that information could result in your becoming liable for a pension overpayment. The Service may have to make deductions from your salary by court order or statutory notice; not to comply could make you liable to fine or imprisonment and, with regard to statutory notice, would render the Service liable to penalties.

If you receive as part of your Parliamentary Standard Allowance a payment in respect of the expenses of public representation, you are required to retain vouchers to show that you devoted the payment to the types of expenses permitted by the relevant Regulations. Each year, in accordance with the Regulations, 10% of the Members are selected at random for audit by an external auditor appointed by the Service, and you must, if selected, supply the vouchers to the auditor for inspection.

While you are not a public body for the purpose of the Freedom of Information Act, the Commission and Service are. This means that the Service will have to deal with your personal information in answer to FOI requests, for example in relation to expenses paid to you. The Service will also need to deal with your personal information if you exercise rights under data protection law.

(b) Public interest. There is a substantial overlap between this ground on which your personal information will be dealt with and the exercise of official authority mentioned above. However, the Service publishes certain types of information, such as particulars of Members’ salary, and allowances paid and repaid, on its website in the interests of transparency. The Service also publishes your name, political party, and constituency in a Members’ Directory and on the intranet, in the Members’ Administration System, and identifies you as a designated public official for the purposes of the law regulating lobbying. The Members’ Directory more broadly facilitates the democratic process and contact between members of the public and their public representatives.

(c) Contract. The Service needs to deal with your personal information where you enter, or wish to enter, into a contract with it, most notably where you pay for food and drink in the bar(s) and restaurant(s). For the link to the Restaurant’s privacy policy click here. Unless you provide the Service with the personal information in question, it will either not be able to enter into a contract with you, or will be restricted in the contract it can enter into (for example, you may not be afforded credit).

(d) Vital interests of the person referred to. The Service is allowed to deal with a person’s personal information in order to protect the vital interests of the person or of some other person. So it will ask for your consent to provide details such as name, address, relationship, and contact details of your next of kin or similar contacts in case there is an emergency. The Service will retain this information and will only use it in circumstances of clear urgency.

(e) Establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. The Service will deal with your personal information where this is necessary to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim, including by disclosing it to its legal advisers and in proceedings before any relevant court, tribunal, arbitrator, mediator, or similar entity.

(f) Consent. There are a number of instances where the Service will deal with your personal information on the basis of your consent, even if it would not be entitled to do so on any of the foregoing bases. One significant instance is where you travel as part of a Committee. If you choose to engage in this type of travel, the Service may ask you to permit information from your passport to be transmitted directly to authorities in your country of destination. Other instances include details of your car registration to enable the Service to provide you with parking facilities, details necessary to obtain travel insurance for you, details needed to enrol you in interparliamentary organisations and to attend their functions, and details required to allow the Service to deduct premiums for public liability, employer’s liability, contents, accident, or health insurance, or life assurance, or AA membership, or to make payments to other third persons such as charities, from your salary on your behalf (this may also require personal information about the third party recipient to be dealt with). With your consent, the Service can provide a fuller biography about you (for example, of your contact details and occupation outside the Houses) in the Members’ Directory and Members’ Administration System. The Service generally does not use your photograph without your consent.

You are allowed to withdraw your consent at any time. This won’t affect how the Service has already dealt with the personal information, but the Service won’t be able to deal with the personal information any more. You can withdraw your consent at least as easily as the way you gave it (for example, if the personal information is not special category data or criminal offence data, and you gave consent orally, you may withdraw it orally).

Additional personal information that may be dealt in particular instances where each of the above grounds apply includes your name (including signature), your party (if any), your address, your date of birth, amounts claimed, and your declaration that you are entitled to any allowance or other benefit you apply for.

• The Service will provide your relevant personal information to the Revenue Commissioners so that tax and PRSI can be paid
• If you are on your election in receipt of a public sector pension or enjoy a preserved benefit to such a pension, particulars of your membership of the Houses and your remuneration must be provided to your pension administrator with a view to possible pension abatement
• If you are audited in respect of the public representation element of Parliamentary Standard Allowance, the personal information in your vouchers will be dealt with by the auditor for the purposes specified in Regulations (please note that the Service has no access to the contents of the vouchers or entitlement to have those disclosed to it)
• If you consent to a deduction from your salary or to providing information to the Service so that you can avail of a particular type of scheme or to travel, this will involve your personal information (including sometimes special category data) being transferred to the payee or scheme participant (for example, an insurance company, or a transport company)
• If you undertake travel, your passport details may have to be submitted to the authorities of the country you intend to visit, and to any relevant travel agent, and travel insurance company
• The Service will give your name and contact details to an outside contactor where this is necessary, for example, to provide you with ICT support or external print facilities
• Some of the Service’s accommodation and parking facilities are provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the Service will need to share your personal information with that Department if you avail of those services.

It will be rare that any personal information the Service deals with and to which this Privacy Notice applies will be transferred to a country outside the EU (including to the country’s diplomatic mission within it). One instance where this will occur is where you travel outside the EU as part of a Committee or delegation. A number of legal bases may be involved here (booking travel and visa applications, for example). The Service will try to give you greater and more directed warning of possible risks in advance of your travelling to a particular country.

The Service will keep personal information only as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice or as required by law, whichever is longest.

It would be rare for the Service to deal with personal information for a purpose other than the purpose for which it received the information. There are nonetheless instances where this will be appropriate. For example, it may use any contact details it holds in relation to you to seek recover of any money it believes you owe the Service, whether you are still a Member or not. It may also notify you that it will use your contact details, even after you cease to be a Member, for legitimate purposes such as inviting you to social and commemorative events that are within its remit to organise; however, it will only do so if on balance this is compatible with your privacy and other rights and you will be afforded the opportunity to opt out. If the Service needs to further deal with your information in some other way, it will let you know before the dealing takes place.

You may ask the Service for a copy of your personal information. You may ask the Service to supplement or correct your personal information if it is incomplete or incorrect (including out of date). You may be able to ask the Service to delete personal information, especially if you have withdrawn consent to the Service’s dealing with it or the Service no longer needs it, or not to deal with it for the time being, for example, if you think it is incorrect. If the Service is dealing with your personal information on the basis of your consent or a contract to which you are party, you can normally require the Service to forward it on to some other person named by you. You may object at any time to the Service’s dealing with personal information it is dealing with in the exercise of official authority or in the public interest, although this entitlement is subject to many legal qualifications depending on the personal information and why the Service am dealing with it. You are entitled not to be subject to automated decision making, including profiling.

If you are not content with how the Service is dealing with your personal information, you may bring your dissatisfaction to the attention of the Data Protection Commissioner: see www.dataprotection.ie.

Special Category Data means personal information about a person’s:

• race
• ethnic background
• political opinions
• religion
• philosophical beliefs
• membership of a trade union
• genes (biological inheritance)
• biometric data (such as fingerprints on a passport)
• health
• sex life
• sexual orientation.

Criminal offence data means personal information about a person’s:

• alleged commission of criminal offences
• criminal convictions
• being subject to security measures related to criminal offences or convictions.

On 15 November 2024, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage signed the Seanad (Panel Members) General Election Order 2024.

This Transparency Notice is published by the Clerk of the Seanad as Seanad Returning Officer designated by section 4(1) of the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Act 1947 (the Returning Officer/I/me/my) in relation to how I deal with personal information in the course of the Seanad General Election.  It is the Returning Officer’s duty to conduct the election, to count the votes and to ascertain and declare the result.  Where contemplated by statute, references to the Returning Officer extend to the Clerk Assistant acting in that capacity.

For more detail on data protection compliance and on relevant terminology, see the General Data Protection Policy of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission/Service (parliamentary administration).  If you are not content with how your personal information is being dealt with, you may complain to the Data Protection Commission.

Personal information means any information about someone from which the person can be identified.

The following personal information in particular is dealt with in the course of a Seanad General Election:

• Within 10 days after dissolution, I must post a form of proposal for nomination to each nominating body in the Register of Nominating Bodies.  The secretaries of county councils and chief executives of cities and cities and counties must within 15 days of the dissolution of the Dáil notify me of particulars of the members of the local authorities in question, so that I can include them in the roll of Seanad electors. The Clerk of the Dáil must within 3 days of receiving all the returned writs in the Dáil general election furnish a list of the incoming Deputies to me for the same purpose.
• The nomination and proposal for nomination forms are prescribed by the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) (Prescribed Forms) Regulations as amended from time to time.  Common to the forms are requirements to enter the name of the person nominated or proposed for nomination, their description (office, profession, employment), their address, and sufficient information for me to conclude that the person nominated or proposed for nomination has “knowledge and practical experience” of the “interests and services” by reference to which the relevant panel is defined as required by Article 18.7.1° of the Constitution. A nomination form is signed by each of the Members of the Houses nominating the person. A proposal for nomination form is signed by persons authorized to witness the application of the seal of the Registered Nominating Body or, where a seal is not required, by a person authorized by the Body.
  Provision is made for the person nominated or proposed for nomination to supply photographs in prescribed format (including name printed on the reverse of the print) which, if the person’s nomination is accepted, will be included on the ballot paper. You may withdraw consent at any time, but without affecting anything done beforehand. Persons nominated or seeking nomination may communicate to me, directly or through a third party, information to assist me in considering whether they have ”knowledge and practical experience” of the relevant “interests and services”. That information is processed by me solely for the purposes of my functions under the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Act 1947.”
• I prepare a provisional list of candidates nominated by Members and proposed for nomination by Registered Nominating Bodies.  I cause to be posted on notice boards attached to the railings of Leinster House notice of having received the relevant paper, and of the name, address, and description of each proposed candidate, and the panel to which their nomination is sought. As a support to the Houses and their Members, the names of the persons listed and the panel applicable to each person is published on the Oireachtas website. I must also make the full forms open for inspection at prescribed times by other intending candidates.
• I examine the nomination forms to ascertain whether the candidates nominated (by Members) or proposed for nomination (by Registered Nominating Bodies) are qualified for the panel for which they are nominated, and I conduct a sitting in the presence of a Judge of the High Court as well as the intending candidates and their agents on a day to be appointed by me, in this election 8 January 2025, for deciding on the inclusion of candidates and considering any questions raised about proposed candidacies. I can note concerns about the qualification of intending candidates myself, or consider questions previously submitted in writing from other candidates or their agents. I can also hear from witnesses.  Provision is made for the adjournment of the sitting if any panel cannot be completed in accordance with the requirements of the 1947 Act and for the nomination by the Taoiseach in a prescribed form similar to that already described of a candidate or candidates to supply the deficiency or by way of stand-by.
• On completion of the sitting, I enter up all qualified and validly nominated candidates, noting in respect of each the qualification that entitles the candidate to form part of the panel in question.  I prepare tables of the panels and sub-panels, identifying the candidates by name, address, and description, and setting forth particulars of the qualifications of each for the purposes of Article 18.7.1°.  These tables are published in Iris Oifigiúil with the identities of the relevant nominators.  I also cause to be published in Iris Oifigiúil the roll of Seanad electors.  I then forward to each elector by post a copy of the notice of the completed panels as published in Iris Oifigiúil.
• Next, I cause to be issued to each elector a voting package posted to him or her containing separate ballot papers for each panel, a covering envelope, and a ballot paper envelope.  Each candidate is identified by name, address, and description (occupation) on the ballot paper, and by an acceptable photograph (as described above) if they wish; they must also be identified with a particular panel and sub-panel.  Each ballot paper bears a number identical to its counterfoil. Provision is made for electors to apply for a duplicate voting package if the original has gone astray.
• To cast a valid vote, each elector must have a declaration of identity witnessed by one of a prescribed list of public officers, and the relevant officer must certify on a slip to be pasted over the seal of the covering envelope that the prescribed voting procedure was complied with.
• At the count, the candidates, their agents, my assistants and I must sign a prescribed undertaking to preserve the secrecy of the process.  Provision is made for the recording of the result of each count. I certify the final result in duplicate, retain one copy, and forward the other to the Clerk of the Dáil.  I cause the results broken down by panel to be published in Iris Oifigiúil.  Provision is also made for the sealing and retention of various classes of documents processed in the course of the count; I retain these for 6 months and then destroy them unless the High Court sitting as an election tribunal orders otherwise.
• Once I, as Clerk of the Seanad, have obtained the results of the elections for the elected members of the House and have had communicated to me the names of the Members nominated by the Taoiseach, I write to each Senator notifying him or her that his or her attendance is required on a date before the date set for the meeting of the new Seanad for the purpose of signing the Roll of Members. Finally, in the public interest, I prepare and cause to be published a report in relation to the election, the election for the University seats, and the Senators nominated by the Taoiseach.

I deal with the personal information set out above in furtherance of the constitutional and statutory provisions for Seanad Elections and the duty of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service to provide support services to the Houses and their Members. The legal bases under the GDPR are generally Article 6(1)(c) where there is a legal obligation to deal with the personal information in a particular way, or Article 6(1)(e), where the personal information is dealt with to fulfil a legal task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority. A complementary legal basis, where required, is provided by section 38(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 in respect of standard personal information and section 49 in respect of special categories of personal information that are entitled to enhanced protection under Article 9 of the GDPR. The only class of special category data likely to apply is political opinion, and handing that personal information is justified either because it has been manifestly made public by candidates in seeking election, or as advancing a substantial public interest as proportionately provided by the relevant electoral law.

The provision by candidates of photographs is optional, and the processing of this type of personal information is undertaken with their consent; the right to withdraw consent has already been mentioned.

The sources and recipients of personal information are generally evident from the description of the nomination and electoral process set out above. I will avail of the facilities of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service in which I include where appropriate, its governing body the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, to support me in carrying out my constitutional and statutory functions. The Houses of the Oireachtas Service retains data processors bound by data processing agreements that secure your personal information rights.

The result of the election is open to being questioned by electoral petition to the High Court and to such appeals as are allowed by law, and personal information to which this Transparency Notice applies will be further processed and shared with persons such as the petitioner, the respondent, their legal representatives, the Court, and its officers, as may be required for the disposal of the petition proceedings.

The Freedom of Information Act 2014 applies to the Houses of the Oireachtas Service but subject to the exceptions in the Act. Neither the Houses of the Oireachtas Service nor I will share your personal information with a third person not mentioned in this Notice unless this is a strict legal requirement.

The Houses of the Oireachtas Service and I secure all personal information that this Transparency Notice relates to and take robust and effectual operational and technical measures to prevent unauthorized access to it, interference with it, and/or its unauthorized dissemination. Our dealing with your personal information will not involve its being transferred to a country not protected by the GDPR or equivalent.

Your personal information will only be retained so long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes it was collected for, and in particular please refer to the statutory retention limits referred to elsewhere in this Notice.

This Transparency Notice will be reviewed at regular intervals and updated as necessary.