Privacy policy

This website is maintained by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), a division of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, on behalf of government departments. The Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation 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 securely and confidentially in accordance with the Data Protection Acts 1988-2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This statement relates to our privacy practices in connection with this website. We explain some technical terms used in this statement at the end of this page.

This website does not collect any personal data, apart from information that you volunteer, when providing feedback or subscribing for notifications about a consultation for example.

Any information you provide in this way is used only for its specified purpose. More detail on other types of information collected relating to website visitors is available below.

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

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

We temporarily store IP addresses in our server logs for security and system maintenance purposes. IP addresses used in analytics are anonymised and cannot be used to identify individual users.

We use this information to analyse the usage patterns of the website to improve the website’s effectiveness. 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 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.

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files placed on your device by websites you visit. They enable websites to work correctly, remember your preferences, and help us understand how you use our website.

Why we use them

The Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation uses cookies for:

• security: to protect the website and users
• website functionality: to deliver optional media services

Necessary cookies

These cookies are essential for the security of this website. You cannot disable these.

gov.ie first-party cookies

• cookie name: csrftoken (first-party)
• expiration time: end of session
• description: We use this cookie to secure your session and to protect against malicious attack

Optional cookies

First-party optional cookies

• cookie name: cookie_preferences
• expiration time: 180 days
• description: Stores user choice when saving cookie preferences

Third-party embedded media cookies

Enable this setting to permit third-party services (for example: video players, audio players, maps) to place cookies when their content is embedded on a page. These cookies are controlled by the external provider and may support functionality, remember settings, or collect usage data. Disabling this option prevents embedded content from loading.

Summary of actions and effects

How to change your cookie choices

1. Use the “Manage cookies” link on the website footer
2. Adjust settings under “Cookie preferences”
3. Click "Save preferences" to apply your choice immediately

We record cookie preferences separately for each browser installed on your computer or smartphone. If you use more than one browser, you will need to record your preferences for each one separately.

What happens if you reject or disable cookies

You can also block cookies through your browser preferences. This is independent of your cookie preferences for gov.ie websites. If you select to allow optional cookies as described above, but have cookies blocked through your browser preferences, embedded media will most likely not work.

Matomo Analytics

To better understand website usage while respecting user privacy, we use Matomo Analytics, a self-hosted analytics solution. Matomo operates without setting cookies and uses cookieless tracking to gather anonymous data on user behaviour. We don’t store or track any personally identifiable information (PII) in relation to your general browsing activities on our website.

However, while Matomo respects privacy, please note that it may capture and store any PII entered using the search feature on gov.ie.

This can occur if users include names, email addresses, or other personal data in their search queries. We advise users not to enter personal or sensitive information into the search bar, as we may retain this data for analytics purposes.

The FormsIE platform facilitates the creation of data collection web forms on behalf of public service organisations by OGCIO. FormsIE by their nature are a data collection interface and do not store data themselves.

Note: When you use a FormsIE service, it may collect the following personal information:

• contact information: name, email address, phone number and address
• form responses: any information you provide when filling out forms created using this service

The purpose of this service is to provide a simple, secure, and easy to use platform for organisations to provide a mechanism to collect data for public services to streamline their data collection and service provision.

The information you provide may be used to:

• provide and improve the organisation's service
• operate, maintain, and enhance the service
• provide customer support

The legal basis for any personal data through FormsIE is a matter for the public sector organisation collecting the data. The public sector organisation will detail this on a separate privacy notice that they will make available.

The piece of software you use to read web pages. Examples are Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera.

The identifying details for your computer (or your internet company’s computer), expressed in internet protocol code (for example, 192.168.72.34). Every computer connected to the web has a unique IP address, although the address may not be the same every time a connection is made.

If you are concerned about how this website processes personal data, please do not hesitate to bring such concerns to our attention. To do so, you can contact the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation's Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@per.gov.ie.

In respect of personal data within the content of a specific website hosted on gov.ie, including where FormsIE gathers your data, you should contact the relevant public sector organisation directly. Most sites should have a Privacy section where details on how to do this are available.