OIREACHTAS ESSAY COMPETITION DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY POLICY 

The Oireachtas Essay Competition Organising Committee (“the Committee”) is committed to protecting your privacy. In legal terms, the Committee is a data controller and, as such, we are required by data protection law, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) (“GDPR”) to provide you with information in relation to the collection, holding, use, disclosure and transfer (known as “processing”) of personal information (or “Personal Data”) relating to you. This Privacy Statement describes how and why we collect Personal Data and what we do with it. 

Personal Data means any information which the Committee has or obtains, such as your: 

• Name 

• Address 

• Email address 

• School name and address and 

• Financial details (where you have supplied these for the purposes of receiving a cash prize) 

from which you can be directly or indirectly personally identified. 

Where we get Personal Data from   

We collect Personal Data directly from you. We collect applicants’ contact details and eligibility data, including, from you, school representatives’ names and contact details where they have agreed with you to certify your participation in the competition. We receive Personal Data about you through forms that you complete (via our website) or (in limited circumstances) from third parties, including any data which your school may provide to us. 

Use of Personal Data and Basis of Processing  

We gather and process your Personal Data for a variety of reasons and rely on a number of different legal bases to carry out that processing. We process your data so that you can enter the Oireachtas Essay Competition. 

In general, we will use your Personal Data: 

• for the purposes of your participation in the Oireachtas Essay Competition, including processing applications, 

• for the purpose of assessing your eligibility under the competition rules, 

• to contact you if you have won a prize in the competition, 

• in the case of your financial details, to pay the prize monies, 

• where the processing is required in connection with a legitimate purpose of the Committee, such as promoting the proper and efficient operation of the Oireachtas Essay Competition, and 

• for keeping in touch with you regarding the above purposes. 

Applicants who enter the Oireachtas Essay Competition, and school staff who who certify students’ applications, agree and consent to the Committee processing their Personal Data for purposes connected with the Oireachtas Essay Competition this year. The Committee will also seek the consent of applicants and Teacher Points of Contact to be contacted about the Competition in future years.

Applicants and school staff certifying applications have the right at any time to withdraw consent to the future use of their Personal Data for some or all of the above-named purposes by writing to the Committee at the address specified below. 

How we share Personal Data  

The Committee will not disclose any Personal Data to any third party, except as follows: 

1. the members of the Committee and judges of the Oireachtas Essay Competition will have access to some of your Personal Data for the purposes of administering the competition at all stages; 

2. to anyone providing a service to the Committee. In this circumstance, those persons will be acting as data processors; and 

3. where the disclosure is required by law or regulation, or court or administrative order having force of law, for the purposes of legal proceedings, or is required to be made to any regulatory or tax authority. 

If you require any more information about the people who receive your Personal Data from us or to exercise your rights in relation to the data they hold, please contact us at the address specified below and we will put you in touch with them. 

Security of Personal Data  

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your Personal Data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. 

Updates to Personal Data  

The Committee will use reasonable efforts to keep Personal Data up to date.  However, you will need to notify the Committee without delay in the event of any change in your personal circumstances so that the Committee can keep your Personal Data up to date. 

Retention of Personal Data  

Your Personal Data will be retained for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was obtained by the Committee or as required or permitted for legal, regulatory or fraud prevention purposes. 

The details of competition winners may be used after the year in which any person enters, participates in, or certifies entry to the Oireachtas Essay Competition to promote the award given, the essay competition generally or to invite competition winners to further Oireachtas events such as the Oireachtas award ceremony and lunch. 

Your Rights in relation to Personal Data  

You may at any time request a copy of your Personal Data from the Committee.  You also have the right to correct any inaccuracies in, and in certain circumstances, to request erasure, or restriction on the use, of your Personal Data, and to object to certain uses of your Personal Data, in each case subject to the restrictions set out in applicable data protection laws.  You may also have the right to move, copy or transfer your Personal Data.  Further information on these rights, and the circumstances in which they may arise in connection with our processing of Personal Data can be obtained by writing to us at the address specified below. 

In any case where the Committee is relying on your consent to process your Personal Data, you have the right to change your mind and withdraw consent by writing to the address specified below. 

These rights can be exercised by writing to the Committee at the address specified below. 

You also have the right to lodge a complaint about the processing of your Personal Data by the Committee with the Data Protection Commission at: 

Data Protection Commission 

21 Fitzwilliam Square South
Dublin 2
D02 RD28
Ireland 

Phone:  +353 578 684 800 / +353 761 104 800
Fax:  +353 57 868 4757 

Webforms available here: https://www.dataprotection.ie/

Email: info@dataprotection.ie 

Website: http://www.dataprotection.ie 

We will not be able to include you as an applicant in the Oireachtas Essay Competition if you do not provide us with your Personal Data. 

Contacting the Committee 

Any queries or complaints regarding the use of the Personal Data by the Committee and / or the exercise of individual rights should be addressed to the Committee at info@oireachtasessay.ie.  We recommend that you provide as much detail as possible when sending requests to us so that we can deal with your query properly and efficiently. 

Last updated 31 August 2022.