Privacy Statement & Cookie Usage

Privacy Statement

This website is maintained by the Department of the Taoiseach which fully respects your right to privacy, and will not collect any personal information about you on this website without your clear and explicit permission. Any personal information which you volunteer will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, strictly in accordance with the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003. This statement relates to our privacy practices in connection with this website.

Collection and use of personal information

This website does not collect any personal data, apart from information that you volunteer e.g. when providing feedback or asking a question. Any information you provide in this way is used only for its specified purpose.

Information we routinely collect

We may collect the following information from each user of this site:

  • Statistical information (IP address and hostname, web browser version, pages visited etc.)
  • The previous website address from which you reached us, including any search terms used

What we use the information for

We will neither make attempts to identify individual visitors, nor associate the technical details listed above with any individual. It is our policy never to disclose such technical information in respect of individual website visitors to any third party unless explicitly stated, or obliged to disclose such information by a rule of law. The technical information will be used only for statistical and technical purposes.

You should note that technical details, which we cannot associate with any identifiable individual, do not constitute ‘personal data’ for the purposes of the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information, stored in simple text files, placed on your computer by a website. Some cookies can be read by the website on your subsequent visits. The information stored in a cookie may relate to your browsing activities on the website, or a unique identifier so that the website can 'remember' you on your return visit. Other cookies are deleted when you close your browser and only relate to the working of the website. Generally speaking, cookies do not contain personal information from which you can be identified, unless you have furnished such information to the website.

Cookie usage on this website

When you first visit this website, you will see a message informing you about cookies. If you click the ‘OK’ button, a cookie will be set that records your preference. Most browsers allow you to turn off cookies or to customise your settings for cookies. To find out how to do this, see the ‘Help’ menu on your browser. Please note that if you turn off cookies or change your settings, some features of the website may not work correctly.

Specific Cookies

The Department of the Taoiseach uses Google Analytics to assist us in the functioning of this website. This service helps us to provide relevant information in an easily accessible format. We use IP Anonymization in Google Analytics. A sample of the types of cookies that are used on this website are outlined below. This is not an exhaustive list. If you are concerned about how personal data is processed via this website, please do not hesitate to bring such concerns to our attention.

Name: ASP.NET_SessionId

Expiration Time: Session

Description: Preserves session state across page requests.

 

Name: AWSELB

Expiration Time: Session

Description: Distribute traffic on several servers to optimise response times.

 

Name: uid

Expiration Time: 2 months

Description: Unique User ID that recognises user on return visits.

 

Name: __utm.gif

Expiration Time: Session

Description: Google Analytics - Tracking Code that logs details about browser and computer.

 

Name: __utma

Expiration Time: 2 years

Description: Google Analytics - Number of times user has visited website as well as dates for first and most recent visit.

 

Name: __utmb

Expiration Time: Session

Description: Google Analytics - Timestamp of when user accessed website. Used to calculate duration of visit.

 

Name: __utmc

Expiration Time: Session

Description: Google Analytics - Timestamp of when user leaves website. Used to calculate duration of visit.

 

Name: __utmz

Expiration Time: 6 months

Description: Google Analytics - Collects data on where user came from, what search engine was used, what link was clikced and what search term was used.