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David Stanton TD

Privacy Notice

Please take a few minutes to read over this notice

Introduction

As TD for Cork East Constituency, your privacy is important to me.  This Privacy Notice sets out what may happen to any personal information given to me, David Stanton, and my constituency office staff. 

My constituency office address is 29 St. Mary’s Road, Midleton, Co. Cork, P25AH76 which can be reached by telephone at 021 4632867 or via email at david.stanton@oir.ie and I also maintain an individual office in Leinster House, Dublin 2, when the Dáil is in session. 

I am issuing this Privacy Notice because of my duties under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into force on 25 May 2018.  This Privacy Notice sets out how I will deal with personal information belonging to you and to other people as defined in the GDPR. Privacy can only apply to information that is not already in the public domain and GDPR only applies to such personal data.

The General Data Protection Regulation is a European Union Regulation that sets out the data entitlements of data subjects and the obligations of those who process the personal data of data subjects. GDPR seeks to protect and enhance the rights of data subjects. These rights cover the safeguarding of personal data, protection against the unlawful processing of personal data and the unrestricted movement of personal data within the EU.

Personal Data

As a public representative I have a copy of the database Electoral Register for the Cork East Constituency, supplied to me by the Houses of the Oireachtas.

When a resident within Cork East Constituency contacts me to make a representation on their behalf, I store that information within the Houses of the Oireachtas database. The data stored is a copy of our correspondence, any correspondence I receive on your behalf and your contact details to enable me or a member of my staff to make contact with you. A record of this correspondence is kept in the event that you make contact again and I need to reference previous representations.

Depending on the representation received, I may need to keep certain special category data to enable me to perform representations on your behalf; for example I have data about health issues when I am making a representation to the Department of Health.

Special Category Data

According to GDPR Special Category Data refers to:

  • 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.

To clarify I do not keep a record or database of voter preferences or political beliefs.

There are particular circumstances in which special category data may be dealt with in connection with the activities of a political party under Article 9 of the GDPR.

As a TD I often tend to receive data from individuals outside of the constituency. If you contact me on a constituency related matter and you are not from Cork East Constituency then I will refer your query to the relevant Fine Gael Oireachtas Member to take up the enquiry on your behalf. I will then delete your data.

When you first make contact with me, you will be required to confirm that you agree to the processing of your information. A copy of this is also kept on the constituency database. I also keep a record of the contact details for constituency community groups, organisations, businesses and representatives. Many of these are generic email addresses, but some contain the specific contact details of the person with whom my office engages. 

My office staff have access to that data and may conduct representations on your behalf.

All of our data is all held on the Oireachtas server. The IT staff in the Oireachtas on occasion may have access to the content of our computers for the purposes of rendering IT assistance. There is a data processing agreement between me and the Oireachtas ICT. Our IT system has the Oireachtas level of security which means it is password protected and only authorised persons have access to the data. All Oireachtas staff of Public Representatives are Garda Vetted and have been reference checked.

Lastly, I have access to the contact details of members of Cork East Constituency Fine Gael which is used to keep in regular contact and inform them of upcoming meetings and events.

Data Minimisation Principle

My office will only collect the information we need so that we can ensure adequate processing of information relevant to your enquiry. There will be no sale or brokering of data nor will there be any transfer of data to any centralised database or any database outside of the country.

Data may inadvertently cross borders in the operation of certain software applications where the operation of the software is controlled from the US. These transfers are provided for in the standard contractual clauses within GDPR.

Legal basis for processing any personal data

I rely on the following grounds to process data:

Public Interest and Official Authority

You may ask me to make a representation on your behalf to a particular Department, body or State agency or to ask a Parliamentary Question directly to a Government Minister where the subject matter may include personal information about you.

If the representation or request you are making is on behalf of a third person, you will need to show me that you have that third person’s consent. This does not apply if you show to me that the third person is, because of physical or mental incapacity or because they are too young, incapable of giving the consent.

Making representations, or asking a Parliamentary Question means that personal information will have to be shared with other people. For example, if I make a representation to a State body or a Department, a limited number of people will need to consider and deal with the information in order to present a response.  

If I ask a Parliamentary Question, the information is transmitted to the relevant Department through civil servants in the Houses of the Oireachtas Service (parliamentary administration). The exact details of the person can be marked as ‘details supplied’ to ensure that specific individual details are not available on the Dáil’s public record.

Consent

Information is gathered from you as a data subject with your express and explicit consent.

I will deal with your personal information if you consent to my doing so. If you ask me to deal with special category data I will usually need your consent in writing.

You are allowed withdraw your consent at any time. This will not affect how I have already dealt with the personal information previously given, but I will not be able to deal with the personal information thereafter.

Through agreeing to this privacy notice you are consenting to us processing your personal data for the purposes outlined.

Please complete the downloadable constituent consent form on the website in recognition.

You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing david.stanton@oir.ie.

Performance of a Statutory or Legal Obligation

I may come into possession of data that has a mandatory reporting obligation, that might include sensitive data. In such instances I will notify the relevant body and share whatever data I am obliged to.

Vital Interests of the Person Referred To

I am allowed to deal with a person’s personal information in order to protect the vital interests of the person or of some other person. If the information is special category data or criminal offence data, I may only deal with it on this basis if the person is physically or legally incapable of giving consent.

Other Grounds

I will deal with (including disclosing to someone else) your personal information if the law requires me to do so. For example, I must disclose particulars of donors to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO), and details of my election agent at election time.

I must make an annual return which lists anyone who has conferred certain types of benefit on me or, in some instances, on my family or close relatives. I will need to deal with your personal information if you exercise rights under data protection law. I will also deal with personal information if the dealing is needed so that I can obtain legal advice or if I need to take part in court or similar proceedings.

Disclosure

A necessity of my making a representation on your behalf is that I share your name and as much detail as I am obliged to give with the party to whom I am making the representation on your behalf.

Retention Policy

Data will be retained until I am no longer a public representative, when it is deleted and certified as so by the Houses of the Oireachtas IT or until you instruct me to delete it.

Data storage

Data is held on the Oireachtas server, the data does not leave the Leinster House Campus.

Your rights as a data subject

For the entirety of the time that I am in possession of personal data, data subjects have the following rights:

  • Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
  • Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances, you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.
  • Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply you have a right to restrict the processing.
  • Right of portability – you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.
  • Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.
  • Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you also have the right not to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.

These rights may on occasion need to be modified or curtailed by statutory or competing obligations. In such an instance we will give a very clear reason as to why this has occurred.

You can request the following information:

  • Identity and the contact details of the person or organisation that has determined how and why to process your data.
  • Contact details of the data protection officer, where applicable.
  • The purpose of the processing as well as the legal basis for processing.
  • If the processing is based on the legitimate interests of our company or a third party such as one of its clients, information about those interests.
  • The categories of personal data collected, stored and processed.
  • Recipient(s) or categories of recipients that the data is/will be disclosed to.
  • How long the data will be stored.
  • Details of your rights to correct, erase, restrict or object to such processing.
  • Information about your right to withdraw consent at any time.
  • How to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority (Data Protection Regulator).
  • Whether the provision of personal data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract, as well as whether you are obliged to provide the personal data and the possible consequences of failing to provide such data.
  • The source of personal data if it wasn’t collected directly from you.
  • Any details and information of automated decision making, such as profiling, and any meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and expected consequences of such processing.

To access what personal data is held, identification will be required

My office will accept the following forms of ID when information on your personal data is requested: a copy of your public services card, driving license or passport – photo ID; and a utility bill not older than three months.

A minimum of one piece of photographic ID listed above and a supporting document is required. If we are dissatisfied with the quality, further information may be sought before personal data can be released. All requests should be made to david.stanton@oir.ie or by writing to me office at David Stanton TD, 29 St. Mary’s Road, Midleton, Co. Cork, P25AH76.

Complaints

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by my office you have the right to make a complaint to me or to the offices of the Data Protection Commission.

The Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, can be by phone at 076 110 4800 / 057 868 4800 or by completing a webform on its website www.datacommission.ie.

David Stanton TD