Privacy Statement

PRIVACY STATEMENT FOR THE HOUSEHOLD CHARGE WEB SITE

1. Introduction This website Privacy Policy outlines how we deal with any personal data you provide us while visiting this website for the purposes of processing household charge payment transactions and for the preparation and maintenance of a database of residential property in the State.

The access to personal data provided in conjunction with the payment of household charges is strictly controlled under the statutory provisions of the Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 (“the Act”) and the Local Government (Household Charge) Regulations 2012. County and City Councils are the primary data controllers under the Act, and the LGMA, on a shared services agency basis for the County and City Councils, collects and processes household charge data. The legislature has assigned policy responsibility for the household charge to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

By visiting this website, you are accepting the terms of this Website Privacy Policy. Any external links to other websites are clearly identifiable as such and we are not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of these other websites.

2. Types of Information Collected

We retain two types of information:

1. Personal Data
   1. Description: This is data that identifies you or can be used to identify or contact you and may include your name, address, PPSN/tax reference number, email address and telephone number. Email address and telephone number are collected from you if you voluntarily submit it to use for annual reminders. We record the IP address assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider. This is used for a number of purposes including administering the site, analysing trends and gathering statistics. We will not link IP addresses with other personal information except in cases where criminal activity has taken place (e.g.  in response to a "hacking" incident).
   2. Purpose for which held: PersonalData collected on this site is gathered for the purposes of processing household charge payment transactions and for the preparation and maintenance of a database of residential property in the State in accordance with Section 6 of the Act. Declaration data (name and address) or contact data (email, phone number where provided and consent given for usage), may also be used in future years to notify property owners of potential liability for household charges.

1. Non-Personal Data
   1. Description:This Non-Personal Data comprises information that cannot be used to identify or contact you, such as
2. demographic information regarding, for example, 
   browser types
3. The top level domain name from which you access the Internet (for example, .ie, .com, .org, etc.)
4. The date and time you access our site
5.  Other anonymous statistical data involving the use of our website.

1. Purpose for which held:  We use the Non-Personal Data gathered from visitors to our website in an aggregate form to get a better understanding of where our visitors come from and to help us better design and organise our website.

3. Use of Cookies

Cookies: Like many websites, the Household Charge site uses session cookies that we transfer to your computer for the duration of your visit. The website utilises “session cookies” – three cookies are created when you use the site (no cookies are created if you just wish to view the homepage) and another is created if you use the Irish language version of the site. These cookies, which are necessary for the provision of the service to allow you to register and pay the household charge, are held in your browser which then deletes them when you logout of the household charge system.

Google Analytics:In additionwe also use Google Analytics to help analyse how users use the site and gather other statistics. Google Analytics puts “persistent” cookies (typically 4) on your computer each beginning with “_utm”. For more details on this please see the section below on Google Analytics.

Use of Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics with the expansion ‘_anonymizeIp()’; therefore, only abbreviated IP addresses will be further processed, so that a direct connection to the individual user is eliminated.

 This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (‘Google’). Google Analytics uses ‘cookies,’ which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. In the event IP anonymization is activated on this website, your IP address will be shortened beforehand by Google within member states of the European Union or in other signatory states of the Treaty on the European Economic Area. The full IP address will be transmitted to a Google Server in the USA and shortened there only on an exceptional basis. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators, and providing other services to website operators relating to website activity and Internet usage. Google will not associate the IP address transmitted under Google Analytics by your browser with other data held by Google. You may prevent the storage of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser software. You may prevent Google from recording the data generated by the cookie and pertaining to your use of the website (including your IP address), or processing these data by downloading and installing the following browser plug-in available through the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

4. Data Retention

Section 10 of the Act provides for the issuing of receipts and certificates of discharge, waiver and exemption on request. Section 6 of the Act requires that an owner of residential property liable to a household charge or entitled to a waiver from payment of a household charge shall provide information to the relevant local authority relating to the residential property for the purposes of the preparation and maintenance of a database of residential properties in the State. To facilitate these statutory requirements your data will be securely retained in the system.

5. Data Sharing and Exchange

Sharing and exchange of data relevant to the household charge is provided for in Section 14 of the Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 which sets out the relevant persons to which the provisions apply, including the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), the ESB, the Revenue Commissioners, the Minister for Social Protection (for purposes of the waiver for those in receipt of mortgage interest supplement), local authorities and the LGMA.

Outside of this statutory requirement, we will not disclose your Personal Data to third parties unless you have consented to this disclosure. We will disclose your Personal Data if we believe in good faith that we are required to disclose it in order to comply with any applicable law, a summons, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or other statutory requirement.

6. Security

We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorised access to or unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, including appropriate encryption and physical security measures to guard against unauthorised access to systems where we store personal data.

To ensure the security of your credit or debit card information when you enter payment information on this site, the LGMA uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. As you access all areas of this site, you will see the padlock in your browser's security display indicating that the transfer of all data between your browser and the household charge website has been encrypted.

You must make sure that if you're sending sensitive personal or financial information that your connection is secure. If your connection is secure a closed padlock icon appears on the status bar and the URL will start with https:// rather than http://

Your credit or debit card information is not retained on this site; rather it is securely transferred to Realex Payments, a secure online payments provider.

7. Updating, Verifying and Deleting Personal Data

You may inform us of any changes in your Personal Data, and in accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection Acts, we will update or delete your Personal Data accordingly. To find out what Personal Data we hold on you or to have your Personal Data updated, amended or removed from our database, please contact us at support@householdcharge.ie

8. Copyright Statement

The material featured on this site is subject to Government copyright according to the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000. The material may be downloaded to file or printer for personal use only. Where this material is being issued to others, the source (including URL) and copyright status must be acknowledged.

The permission to reproduce Government copyright material does not extend to any material on this site that may be the property of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.

9. Disclaimer Statement

The information provided is intended to enhance public access to information about the household charge process. While every effort is made in preparing material for publication, no responsibility is accepted by or on behalf of the State for any errors, omissions or misleading statements on these pages or any site to which these pages connect.

Although every effort is made to ensure the reliability of listed sites, this cannot be taken as an endorsement of these sites. If you have any concerns regarding the use of your data please contact us via support@householdcharge.ie

10. Changes to the Website Privacy Policy

Any changes to this Website Privacy Policy will be posted on this website so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any time we decide to use Personal Data in a manner significantly different from that stated in this Website Privacy Policy, or otherwise disclosed to you at the time it was collected, we will notify you, and you will have a choice as to whether or not we use your information in the new manner.

The website utilises “session cookies” – three cookies are created when you use the site (no cookies are created if you just wish to view the homepage) and another is created if you use the Irish language version of the site