Met Éireann Competition for a School to Win an Automatic Weather Station
(Privacy Statement)
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the Government Department responsible for housing and water, for physical and spatial planning, for local government, for weather forecasting and for built and natural heritage.
The Department is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy statement explains how the Department, as the Data Controller, will process the personal data provided to it in respect of Met Éireann’s Competition for a Primary School to Win an Automatic Weather Station,
how that information will be used, and what rights you may exercise in relation to your personal data.
Purposes of the processing
The Department will use the information provided in order to allow primary school teachers to enter posters on behalf of the primary school students to enter a competition to win a weather station for their school.
The information provided may be used internally for audit or other compliance purposes where the Department has a lawful basis for such processing.
The Department will not process personal data for any purpose other than that for which it was collected. Your personal data will not be shared with any third parties unless we are required to do so by law.
How do we protect children’s privacy?
We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy online. We will not process data (photos, videos of children at events for example) that relates to children under the age of 16 years unless we have the explicit consent of the appropriate adult.
Profiling
The Department will not use any personal data collected during this event for automated decision-making or profiling purposes.
Lawfulness of processing
This processing of personal data is lawful under Article 6(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.
- Parental or guardian consent is be received by the teacher for all students submitting a poster. Met Éireann will request a copy of the consent of the winning entry only. Consent may be withdrawn at any time prior to or during the event.
- The Parental or guardian is to consent to the student’s poster and name to be featured on Met Éireann’s social media platforms.
Security of your personal data
The Department implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information from unauthorised access. However, despite these efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. In the event that your personal data is compromised as a result of a breach of security, the Department’s Breach Management policy and procedures will be implemented.
Recipients of the data
Personal data may be shared with other Government Departments, local authorities, agencies under the aegis of the Department, or other public bodies, in certain circumstances where this is provided for by law.
- This competition will be advertised on STEM Matters mini-magazine and the data collected by Met Éireann.
The personal data collected will not be shared with any third parties, Government Departments, agencies, or public bodies, unless required by law.
Cross-border Data Transfers
The Department will not transfer personal data collected at this event to any country or international organisation outside the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA).
How long will your data be kept?
The Department will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and processed. In line with legislative and business requirements, the data retention period for your personal data, in this instance, is three years.
Your rights
The Department’s Data Protection Policy, which sets out how we will use your personal data, as well as providing information regarding your rights as a data subject (including details regarding right of access, right to rectification, right to erasure, right to restriction of processing, right to object), is available on our website. The policy is also available in hard copy upon request. If you consider that your rights have been infringed, you have the right to complain to the Irish Data Protection Commission (www.dataprotection.ie), and you have the right to seek a judicial remedy.
Contacting Us
The Department is the Data Controller when processing your personal data for the purposes outlined above. The Department’s contact details are available at: https://www.gov.ie/en/organisation-information/839bc-contact-the-department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/
The Department has appointed a Data Protection Officer to support its compliance with data protection law. The contact details for the Department’s Data Protection Officer are:
Data Protection Officer
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Newtown Road
Wexford
Email: data.protection@housing.gov.ie
Date: 28.07.2025