Proposed Data Sharing Agreement between the Department of Education and the Educational Research Centre

The Data Sharing and Governance Act Framework for sharing data builds upon the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 (DSGA) by setting out a common set of practices for all Public Bodies to follow when they wish to use the Act as their legal basis for sharing data. Under the Framework, data sharing agreements between public bodies for the purpose of sharing personal data will be made available for public consultation for a period of 28 days.

The Department of Education intends to enter into a Data Sharing Agreement under the DSGA with the Educational Research Centre. This will enable the ERC to conduct independent research on all aspects of education and at all levels of the education system including educational research that will inform policy making and the improvement of educational standards. As part of this work, the ERC carries out various studies at a national and international level on behalf of the department such as PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) & PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment).

You are invited to make submissions by email to consultations.dsa@per.gov.ie

Please include the full DSA name DOEERC 020/230803 DSA for independent research of education data in the subject line. Please note that only submissions made to this email will be accepted.

The start date for public consultation is 29 August 2023 and it will run for a period of 28 days. The public consultation will end on 26 September 2023. Submissions will not be accepted once the public consultation period has expired.

We will consider your submission and may respond. Where the proposed parties consider it appropriate, they may also amend the proposed agreement to take into account your submissions. A copy of the Data Sharing Agreement and a summary of all submissions will be sent to the Data Governance Board.

The DSGA Data Sharing Playbook provides a full step-by-step process for data sharing and is available with other relevant DSGA framework publications on the OGCIO website. More information on the Data Governance Board is available on the Data Governance Board website.

To view the consultation click the button below.