Rates Office Privacy Notice

1.0 Information Collected by the Council

The Council processes¹ and uses certain types of information about individuals (Data Subjects) and organisations to provide the most effective and targeted range of services to meet the needs of the citizens, communities and businesses of Clare.

Depending on the service being sought or provided, the information collected may include ‘personal data’². This is defined by the Data Protection Acts 1988, 2003 & 2018, and by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) 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 the Council.  In addition, the Council may be required, from time to time, to collect, process and use certain types of personal data to comply with regulatory or legislative requirements. This includes contact details to allow for efficient communication.  You do not have to provide all contact details but providing more, such as email, phone, address, make it easier to communicate with you.

The Revenue Department collects the following information for the purposes of the administration and management of Commercial Rates.

• Name and address of property owner and/or rated occupier
• Name and address of property location
• Company Trading Name, Sole Trader’s Name, Legal Entity Name
• Contact Details
• Banking Details
• Technical Drawings of Properties
• Rateable Valuation of Property
• Site Location Maps
• Financial Information, including Trading Accounts/Financial Statements
• All interactions with the Revenue Dept. including phone calls, email correspondence and hard copy correspondence.

Further information and application forms can be accessed via the following link: Commercial rates | Rates and charges | Business | Services | Clare County Council (clarecoco.ie)

2.0 Requirement for a Privacy Notice

The Council will set out the information required in a series of separate and distinct application forms and specific Privacy Notice relevant to each service application. Our Privacy Notice is located on our website at: Commercial rates | Rates and charges | Business | Services | Clare County Council (clarecoco.ie)

The Council has created this privacy notice to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy and to assure you that in all your dealings with the Rates office, the Council will ensure the security of the data provided.

The personal data you may be required to supply to the Council, or that may be collected through other sources (i.e. investigations by Council staff; CCTV, information from other third parties or agents acting on your behalf) is

• Obtained lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
• Obtained for only specified, explicit and legitimate purposes
• Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for purpose for which it was obtained
• Recorded, stored accurately and securely and where necessary kept up to date
• Kept only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was obtained
• Kept in a form which permits identification of the data subject for no longer than is necessary
• Processed only in a manner that ensures the appropriate security of the personal data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing.

3.0 Sharing Information

The Council may share your information internally (within the Council) in accordance with statutory obligations. In addition, the Council may share your information with third parties in accordance with statutory and regulatory obligations. The Rates area (Finance) of the Council may request, obtain, and/or share information, in carrying out its various functions, from/with the following bodies:

• County Registrar,
• Commissioner of Valuation,
• Solicitors/Valuers/Consultants acting on behalf of customers.

4.0 How your Personal Data will be used/processed

The volume of customers the Rates section serve and the range of services provided, require IT systems to manage customer accounts and related data. The hard copy and electronic versions of data may be retained. Access to the data is controlled and restricted to relevant staff involved in assessing and processing the various services with other security measures such as passwords.

5.0 Legal and Regulatory Obligations

The legal basis and legitimate interest for processing personal data are included in Valuation Acts and Local Government Acts/Regulations including the following;

• Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838
• Local Government (Collection of Rates) Act, 1924
• Local Government Act 1946
• Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act 1978
• Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1983
• Local Government Act 2001
• Local Government (Business Improvement Districts) Act 2006
• Local Government Reform Act 2014
• Valuation Acts 2001-2015.

6.0 Records Retention Policy

The Council is in the process of preparing retention policies for all services and business units. These policies will outline the timeframe for which your personal data will be retained by the Council and what will happen to it after the required retention period has expired. These policies will be published, when available, on the Council’s website.

7.0 Your Rights

You have the right to request access to personal data held about you, obtain confirmation as to whether data concerning you exists, be informed of the content and source of data and check its accuracy. If the data held by the Council is found to be inaccurate you have the right to change, remove, block, or object to the use of, said personal data held. In certain circumstances blocking access to data may delay or remove access to a service where the data is required by law or for essential purposes related to delivery of a service to you. Please note that to help protect your privacy, the Council will take steps to verify your identity before granting access to personal data.

In addition, Data Subjects have a right to:

• exercise data portability, i.e., obtain a transferable copy of information the Council hold to transfer to a third party/provider,
• obtain details of any transfer of data to a third country (outside the European Economic Area) and safeguards in place,
• obtain details of any automated decision making.

To exercise these rights, you can make a Subject Access Request. This request can be in writing and directed to the contact details at the end of this policy.

 

8.0 Data Protection Contact Details

For all enquiries relating to Rates Data Protection, you can contact the Council at:

Phone: 065 68 46200,

 E-mail: rates@clarecoco.ie

Postal Address:
Clare County Council,
Áras Contae an Chláir,
New Road,
Ennis,
Co Clare,
V95 DXP2.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the response you receive from the Council in relation to your request, then 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 Commissioner,
Canal House, Station Road,
Portarlington,
R32 AP23,
Co. Laois.

¹Processing is anything done with or to Personal Data, including data storage

²Personal Data is information about a living individual which is capable of identifying that individual

Page last reviewed: 26/06/23

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