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  • 045 980200
  • Head Office: Áras Chill Dara Devoy Park Naas Co Kildare W91 X77F

Privacy

Data Protection Act 2018

PRIVACY STATEMENT
for Customer Services Centre

Who are we?

Kildare County Council (the Council) is the democratically elected unit of Local Government in County Kildare and is responsible for providing a range of services to meet the economic, social and cultural needs of the people of our County. In order to provide the most effective and targeted services to meet the needs of the citizens, communities and businesses of County Kildare we will be required to collect, process and use certain types of information about people and organisations.

Why do we have a Privacy Statement?

This privacy statement has been created to demonstrate the Council’s commitment that personal data you may be required to supply to us, to enable us to provide services, is;

  • Obtained lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
  • Obtained for only specified, identified and legitimate purposes
  • Processed for purposes which we have identified or purposes compatible with the purposes that we have identified.
  • Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for purpose for which it was obtained
  • Personal data collected and processed must be accurate and (where necessary) kept up to-date.
  • Kept only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was obtained.
  • Processed in a manner that ensures the appropriate security of the personal data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing.

More detail is available in our Data Protection Statement here or you can request a hard copy at 045 980 200.

What is the activity referred to in this Privacy Statement?

This is the privacy statement for Kildare County Council’s Customer Services Centre

Why do we ask for personal data?

Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in Kildare County Council in accordance with Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation, 2016. Depending on the service being offered, information sought may include ‘personal data’ as defined by the Data Protection Acts and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and may relate to current, past and future service users; past; current and prospective employees; suppliers; and members of the public who may engage in communications with our staff. In addition, staff may be required, from time to time, to collect process and use certain types of personal data to comply with regulatory or legislative requirements or to carry out functions in the public interest.

Our Customer Services Centre is the first point of contact for Council services:

 

Please note that access to the Council's Head Office at Áras Chill Dara, Naas is by Appointment Only.

To make it easy for you to access services and for the Council to communicate with you, you may be asked for contact details and details of your enquiry, whether you contact our team by phone, online or in person. You do not have to provide all contact details but providing more, such as email, phone, address, makes it easier to communicate, and to verify your identity in further contacts.


If you have an existing enquiry or other business with the Council, you may be asked for a relevant file or case number. This is requested to identify and assign your enquiry to the correct service area.

Further information on how to use our Customer Portal/Contact Us page is available in the introductory text on the Portal

Please note that to help protect your privacy; we take steps to verify your identity before granting access to personal data. Your contact details may also be used to verify your identity.

What types of personal data do we need?

The types of personal data you typically may be asked to supply depend on the service you are seeking to access. They can in general however be categorised as follows,

  • Contact details to allow for efficient communication
  • Details of personal circumstances you are required by law to supply as part of your application for a service.
  • Your own financial details which you are required by law to supply as part of your application for a service.

Typically information required to avail of our services is described in separate application forms relevant to each service. These forms will contain a privacy statement, similar to this but with some information specific to the service. Privacy statements outline the legitimate purpose for which data is sought, the legal basis under which it is to be supplied, organisations/bodies that the Council will be required to share data with, or obtain data from, details of how your personal data will be kept safe and the period for which your data will be retained and details on how to exercise your data protection rights. Application forms to access specific services, which include privacy notices, are in general available on our website www.kildarecountycouncil.ie or at our public counters.  

How do we use personal data?

Customer Relationship Management System (CRM).

The volume and range of services we provide, and the volume of customers, requires a system to manage customer requests. When you interact with our Customer Services Centre, there may be many outcomes to your enquiry; you may be seeking information or wish to be directed to the correct Department but, where it’s not possible to resolve your enquiry at our Customer Services Centre we need to create a record of your enquiry to ensure it is managed. Where this is needed the contact details you provide and information about your enquiry are added to the Council’s electronic Customer Relation Management system (CRMS) as a Customer Case and assigned to a service Department and Team who has access only to cases relevant to their Department.

Online customer form.

If you use our online “Customer Portal/Contact Us” form, an email address is required, and while you do not have to add a phone number, providing one may help us to contact you, if any clarification is needed.

Further information on how to use our Customer Portal/Contact Us page is available in the introductory text on the Portal

Out of Hours Service:

Phonecalls outside normal working hours are routed to and managed by our out of hours provider 11890 Ltd. Your contact details and a short message will be taken by the operator and emailed to Council staff to ensure follow up.

Appointments Service:

The Council operates an online appointments system. Customers can self book online adding their name, mobile and/or email address. This data is stored for 3months and then deletes from our system. It may be used by staff if the appointment needs to be changed or cancelled but is otherwise only stored for the purpose of the customer receiving appointment confirmation messages and reminders.

Monitoring and improving customer service performance.

Data is generated in the form of reports within the CRM. This is for use by service managers within our Departments so both the managers and our Customer Services Centre staff can track outstanding enquiries and improve service delivery. Service manager’s access to this form of data is restricted to that relevant to their Department or Team’s services. On the basis that staff have unique passwords and user identities to access the system, the electronic audit function can trace edits to data within the system. Where data for other Depts is available it is statistical and not personal data.

Given the volume and nature of customer interactions related to our Housing Services, and in order to deliver an efficient service, our Customer Services Centre team will directly add enquiries related to this service into the Council’s Housing system, called i-House. Our Customer Services Centre team access to customer records held in i-House is restricted to enable them to assign your enquiry within the i-House system and not further process such data.

Arising from workloads and process changes to facilitate social distancing for staff and customers of our Motor Tax Section and arising from significant volumes of postal applications, certain staff of the Customer Service Centre have password approved access to minimal contact data and vehicle registrations, in order to confirm receipt of postal applications for Motor Tax customers. This is a temporary arrangement arising from Covid-19. There is no access to the National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF) system by Customer Service Centre staff.  

Is personal data shared with other organisations?

The Council may, to fulfil statutory or regulatory obligations or in the public interest, from time to time, have to share personal data with other organisations or entities. Where this is required the Council shall have regard to the security and integrity of the data and will minimise the data shared.  More information on this is contained in our specific application forms.
To offer an efficient service to our customers Kildare County Council uses an external provider to manage customer telephone calls for non-fire emergency purposes outside our opening hours.  Personal data gathered in the Council’s CRMS is not shared with any other service providers. Data from 11890 is shared within Kildare County Council, not externally.

Do you need to update your records?

Kildare County Council must take reasonable steps to ensure that personal data we have about our customers is correct and up to date.

In addition, if the data held by us is found to be inaccurate you have the right to rectify/correct this.  

If you find that personal data we have about you is inaccurate or needs to be updated (for instance, you may have changed your name, address, contact details etc.) then please contact us so that we can correct it. You can do this by:

Writing to us at: Kildare County Council, Áras Chill Dara, Devoy Park, Naas, Co Kildare. W91 X77F

Emailing us at customercare@kildarecoco.ie

When making a request to update your record please provide evidence to support this - for example a copy of a document containing your new address – utility (Gas, Electricity, Phone) bill etc.

How long is my data kept for?

The Local Authority sector operates under a detailed record retention policy which outlines time periods for which your personal data will be retained and what will happen to it after the required retention period has expired. A copy of the National Record Retention Policy for Local Authority Records is available here.

Your rights:

You have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether data concerning you exists, to request access to personal data held about you, to be informed of the content and source of data and check its accuracy.

If the data held by us is found to be inaccurate you have the right to rectify/correct this – see above on how to update your records.

You also, subject to certain conditions being met, have the right to object to or seek restriction of the processing of personal data and to request the erasure of personal data held by the Council. You also have the right to data portability where technically feasible.

Please note that to help protect your privacy; we take steps to verify your identity before granting access to personal data.
To exercise these rights logon to the Data Protection section of the Council website, here, use one of the forms at our Counter or contact us.

Kildare County Council - Access to Information Officer

Phone 045 980 200
E-mail dataprotection@kildarecoco.ie 
Postal Address
Áras Chill Dara,
Devoy Park,
Naas,
Co Kildare. W91 X77F.

Right of Complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the response received by the Council you are entitled to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner who may investigate the matter for you.  The Data Protection Commissioner’s website is www.dataprotection.ie or you can contact their Office at:

Lo Call Number 1890 252 231
E-mail info@dataprotection.ie
Postal Address Data Protection Commission
21 Fitzwilliam Square South
Dublin 2
D02 RD28

Changes to Privacy Statement

We may make changes to this Statement. If we make any changes they will be posted on this page and we will change the “Last Updated” date below.

Last updated: March 3rd 2022.