Privacy Policy
Who we are
This privacy statement refers to the website dublinwinterlights.ie, operated by Dublin City Council.
Dublin City Council seeks to promote the economic, social and cultural development of Dublin City and, in doing so, contribute significantly to improving the quality of life of its people.
The delivery of high-quality services, tailored to meet the needs of all our customers, remains one of Dublin City Council’s core objectives and is included in our Corporate Plan. This quality service includes not only the level and quality of service given to our customers, but also the quality of our decision-making processes, the efficiency and effectiveness of our corporate operations, the standard of our facilities and our ability to adapt in an ever-changing environment.
In order to provide the most effective and targeted range of services to meet the needs of the citizens, communities and businesses of Dublin city, we are required to collect, process and use certain types of information about people and organisations. Depending on the service being sought or provided, this information may include ‘personal data’ as defined by the Data Protection Acts and by the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR). The personal data may relate to past and future service users; past, current and prospective employees; suppliers and members of the public who may engage in communications with Dublin City Council. In addition, Dublin City Council may need, from time to time, to collect, process and use certain types of personal data to comply with regulatory or legislative requirements, or as otherwise reasonably required for the performance of our functions.
Why do we have a privacy statement?
Dublin City Council has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy, and to assure you that in all your dealings with Dublin City Council, we will endeavour to ensure the security of the data you provide.
Dublin City Council creates, collects and processes a significant amount of personal data in various formats daily. This data may be submitted by you through application forms or our website, or through correspondence with you. We may also obtain information about you from other sources, such as government departments or other statutory bodies, from other third parties (including members of the public) and from public sources where required. Dublin City Council commits to using personal data, which 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 the purpose for which it was obtained
- Recorded, stored accurately, securely and, where necessary, kept up to date
- Kept only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was obtained
- Processed only in a manner that ensures the appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing.
Occasionally, we may be required to contact you. When you provide personal data to one department within Dublin City Council, it may be shared with other departments within the Council as long as such internal sharing is relevant, proportionate and reasonably necessary for the performance of our statutory functions. Examples of when departments within Dublin City Council may share information include:
- Facilitating the investigation and prosecution of regulatory breaches and offences, e.g. the environment department may have information that would assist the planning department in prosecutions and applications for injunctive relief.
- Enabling the set-off of money due to the Council, against sums owed by the Council to that person, pursuant to section 7 of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) (No.2) Act 1983.
Dublin City Council may also share your information with other organisations, where necessary, and permitted or required by applicable law, including other public authorities and bodies. Personal data may also be shared with third-party data processors responsible for supporting the Council’s operations.
The main legal basis for processing your personal data is that such processing is (i) necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations and/or (ii) necessary for us to carry out our tasks in the public interest and/or in the exercise of official authority vested in us.
We will retain your personal data only for as long as we require it for the performance of our functions, after which time it will be deleted by appropriate and secure methods. In the unlikely event that we are required to transfer your data outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), we will only do so where we can secure the transfer with appropriate safeguards and where we have a legal right to do so.
What personal data do we need?
The types of personal data you may be asked to supply can be categorised as follows.
- Contact details to allow for efficient communication
- Details of your personal circumstances, which you are required by law to supply as part of your application for a service offered by Dublin City Council
- Your own financial details, which you are required by law to supply as part of your application for a service offered by Dublin City Council
Contact Details
In order to communicate with you, you will be asked for your contact details. You do not have to provide all contact details, but providing more, such as email, phone, and address, makes it easier to communicate.
Details of Personal Circumstances
Suppose you wish to apply for a particular service from the local authority. In that case, you will be asked for a varying amount of personal details specific to you and your family, to support your application. Dublin City Council has set out the information we require in a series of separate and distinct application forms relevant to each service. Specific details of processing for each service will be set out in the respective application forms.
- The personal data which is required to be provided as part of your application, and whether it includes any “special categories of data” such as data relating to your health
- The purposes for which your personal data will be processed
- The legal basis which enables Dublin City Council to process your personal data
- Details of other organisations with whom we may need to share your data
- Details of how your personal data will be kept safe from unauthorised or unlawful processing
- Details of the period for which your personal data will be retained by Dublin City Council (or the criteria which we use to determine how long personal data needs to be retained).
Financial Details
Suppose you wish to apply for a particular service from the local authority. In that case, you may be asked for a varying amount of personal financial details specific to you and your family, to support your application. Dublin City Council will set out the information we require in a series of separate and distinct application forms relevant to each service.
Records Retention
Dublin City Council retains personal information for as long as is necessary. The department holding your personal data will provide more details to you about how long your personal data is held.
Your Rights
You have the following rights, in certain circumstances and subject to applicable exemptions, in relation to your personal data:
- the right to access the personal data that we hold about you, together with other information about our processing of that personal data
- the right to require us to rectify any inaccuracies in your personal data
- the right to require us to erase your personal data
- the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes
- the right to object to our use of your personal data or the way in which we process it
- the right to receive your personal data, which you provide to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to require us to transmit that data to another controller.
Please note that to help protect your privacy, we take steps to verify your identity before granting access to personal data.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please submit a request to our Data Protection Officer, outlining the specific details of the request.
All valid requests will be processed without undue delay and, in any event, within one month of receipt of the request. This period may be extended by up to two further months where necessary.
Right of Complaint to the Office of the Data Protection Commission
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the response you received from Dublin City Council in relation to your request, then you are entitled to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commission, which may investigate the matter for you.
The Data Protection Commission’s website is www.dataprotection.ie, or you can contact their Office at:
Data Protection Commission
Telephone Number
Email Address
Other websites
Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy statement only applies to this website and the services operated by the Council. When you link to other websites, you should read their own privacy policies.
Changes to our privacy statement
We keep our privacy statement under regular review, and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 26 August 2025.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This privacy statement and all issues regarding this website are governed exclusively by Irish law and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish courts.
How to contact us
For any queries relating to the Dublin City Council Privacy Statement or Data Protection policies, please contact our designated Data Protection Officer.