HSE EPA Conference Environment, Health ... - eHealth Ireland€¦ · The Insight Centre for Data...

HSE EPA Conference Environment, Health

& Wellbeing

DATA POLICY WORKSHOP CHAIR: NIALL Ó BROLCHÁIN

November 2018

HSE EPA Conference Environment, Health & Wellbeing

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Workshop Ambition 2

Contributors 2

Workshop Chair 3

About the Insight Centre for Data Analytics 4

What Insight does 4

Panel 1 The challenges of sharing public data 5

Summary of challenges and issues addressed by Panel 1 5

Panel 1, Speaker 1, Professor Mathieu D’Aquin 6

Summary of presentation by Mathieu D’Aquin 6

Top 5 Asks of Mathieu D’Aquin 6

Panel 1, Speaker 2, Dr Fionnuala Donohue 7

Summary of presentation by Fionnuala Donohue 7

Panel 1, Speaker 3, Dr Adegboyega Ojo 9

Summary of presentation by Adegboyega Ojo 9

Panel 1, Speaker 4, Dr Derick Mitchell 10

Summary of presentation by Derick Mitchell 10

Top 5 Asks of Derick Mitchell 10

Questions for Panel 1 11

Panel 2 Sharing health and environmental data to promote wellbeing 12

Summary of challenges and issues addressed by Panel 2 12

Panel 2, Speaker 1, Eoin MacCuirc 13

Summary of presentation by Eoin MacCuirc 13

Top 5 Asks of Eoin MacCuirc 14

Panel 2, Speaker 2, Fiona O’Rourke 15

Summary of presentation by Fiona O’Rourke 15

Top 5 Asks of Fiona O’Rourke 16

Panel 2, Speaker 3, Theresa Barry 17

Summary of presentation by Theresa Barry 17

Panel 2, Speaker 4, Seán Lyons 19

Summary of presentation by Seán Lyons 19

Questions for Panel 2 21

Commentary on data workshop and related matters 22

Open data published by the EPA and the HSE on data.gov.ie 22

Legislation and policies relevant to Data Sharing 23

Open Data best practice guidelines 24

Overall Recommendations 25

Table of Contents


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Workshop Ambition

HSE EPA Data Policy WorkshopFrom Open Data to GDPRData Sharing Challenges – Environment, Health & WellbeingHSE EPA Environment, Health & Wellbeing Conference

2-4pm Wednesday 7th November 2018 Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin

The workshop was comprised of two panels lasting one hour each. Each panel was comprised of 4 people

who made 8-10 minute presentations, followed by an open session with contributions from the floor. The

first panel took an overall look at the national and international data landscape. The second panel explored

practical measures to promote our environment, health and wellbeing using data and information systems to

deliver outcomes. The chair was tasked with drawing out recommendations from the speakers to advocate for

better data services and with collating all the information for this report. The contributions from the panelists

and from the audience were recorded and documented. Feedback from the panelists was also requested post

event. The panelists were requested to give their top five asks in terms of data sharing policy. The report will

be reviewed by all of the following contributors and will be passed on to representatives from the EPA and the

HSE on completion. The key ambition of the report is to make specific recommendations to the HSE and the

EPA as to how they might improve their capacity to share their data.

ContributorsWorkshop Chair and RapporteurNiall Ó Brolchain (NUI Galway)

Speakers Panel 1Mathieu D’Aquin (Insight Centre for Data Analytics)

Fionnuala Donohue (Health Intelligence Unit)

Adegboyega Ojo (Open Data Governance Board)

Derick Mitchell (Irish Platform for Patient Organisations)

Speakers Panel 2Eoin McCuirc (Central Statistics Office)

Fiona O’Rourke (Environmental Protection Agency)

Theresa Barry (SNOMED CT)

Sean Lyons (Economic and Social Research Institute)

Report Reviewers NUI GalwayChristine Domegan

Diarmuid O’Donovan

Easkey Britton

Caitriona Carlin

Gesche Kinderman

Edo Osagie

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Workshop Chair

Niall Ó Brolcháin ([email protected]) of the eGov Centre at the Insight Centre for Data

Analytics, NUI Galway has over 20 years of experience in the ICT industry, in software management, analysis,

research, development and consultancy. He has more than 10 years of policy and legislative experience at

the highest levels of Government. He graduated in Business and Computer studies and has postgraduate

qualifications in Digital Media, Project Management and Marketing. He spent 10 years working in local and

national Government in Ireland serving as Mayor of Galway City from 2006-07 and was deputy Government

whip in Seanad Eireann the upper house of the Irish Parliament until 2011 where he served as spokesperson

on Health, Education, Agriculture, Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Prior to that he served

as parliamentary secretary to the Irish Government. He has a keen interest in Heritage and the Environment

and served as chair of Galway City’s Environment Strategic Policy Committee. He is currently co-chair of the

Galway Environmental Network. He was deputy chairperson on the Western River Basin District project as

part of Ireland’s implementation of the Water Framework Directive and during his time in Government was

instrumental in securing an additional €16.5million for water services in Galway to reduce the health risks

relating to cryptosporidium. He has many years practical experience in legislation and policy development.

He has advised the UK Government on agricultural policy and more recently worked as an advisor to the Irish

Government on its Open Data policy.

Contact Details

Name: Niall Ó Brolcháin

Web: http://insight-centre.org

EMail: [email protected]

Mobile: 087 9524776


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About the Insight Centre for Data AnalyticsThe Insight Centre for Data Analytics is one of Europe’s largest data analytics research organisations, with

400+ researchers, more than 80 industry partners and over €100 million of funding.

Insight is made up of four main centres: Insight@NUI Galway, Insight@DCU, Insight@UCC and Insight@UCD as

well as a number of affiliated bodies.

Each of Insight’s main centres has a long track record of data analytics research. In July 2013 they came

together under Science Foundation Ireland as Insight. The size of the centre allows for collaboration on a large

scale, which enables the organisation to compete for funding and opportunities at a much higher level.

Insight’s key areas of priority research include:

What Insight doesInsight’s research aims to find solutions for the areas of connected health and the discovery economy. Insight is

currently conducting research projects whose outcomes are expected to benefit the following fields:

• Chronic Disease Management & Rehabilitation

• Novel Personal Sensing

• Connecting Health & Life Sciences

• Smart Enterprise

• The Future of News and Media

• The Analytical Society

• Discovery Analytics

Mission: At Insight we undertake high impact

research in data analytics that has

significant benefits for the individual,

industry and society by enabling better

decision making.

Vision: Empowering Citizens. Smarter Societies.

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Panel 1The challenges of sharing public dataThe first of the two panels discussed the challenges of sharing public data in Ireland and internationally from a policy and legislative point of view. In particular the panel discussed the challenge of promoting open government and open data while at the same time ensuring that data protection regulations are fully complied with. Accordingly it is important to define data sharing for the purposes of this report.

What is data sharing?Section 8 of the Data Sharing and Governance Bill 2018 defines data-sharing: “means the disclosure of information, including personal data, by a public body to another public body”.

More broadly, data sharing involves the transfer of data between two or more parties. It can be one or two way or it can involve multiple parties or it can be made publicly available, i.e.

open data. Many different forms of data can be shared, for example metadata (information

about data), aggregate data, survey or unit record data or administrative data.

Summary of challenges and issues addressed by Panel 1

The challenges and issues addressed by panel 1 are listed in detail below. They include the following:

• The key issue of protecting personal data while ensuring that it retains it’s value.

• Standardisation of data including geographical data.

• More granularity of geographical data.

• Development of standardised tools for various aspects of data sharing and open data including anonymisation.

• More research and training in relation to data sharing and open data.

• Continued development of data sharing portals.

• Trust building at all levels.

• Data sharing agreements and shared goals between agencies.

• Provision of supports and infrastructures to enable the sharing of data.

• Allow people to access their own data.


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Panel 1Speaker 1, Professor Mathieu D’Aquin

Profile of Mathieu D’AquinMathieu D’Aquin ([email protected]) is the director of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway. He is a Professor of Informatics specialising in data analytics and semantic technologies. He was previously a Senior Research Fellow at the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University, where he led the Data Science Group. He has led research and development activities around the meaningful sharing and exploitation of distributed information. He has worked on applying the technologies coming out of his research, especially Semantic Web / Linked Data technologies, in various domains including Medicine, Education (especially through learning analytics), Smart Cities / the Internet of Things and Personal Data Management. He is concerned that information overload happens not only when the quantity of information becomes too high to cope with, it also happens when it comes from so many different sources that it cannot be put into a meaningful, coherent whole. Mathieu’s research investigates systems that can reduce this problem, by making digital tools better able to build such meaningful, coherent views over the information used to play, learn and generally interact with our digital world. This ranges from large data infrastructures that handle all the information from large organisations, to knowledge systems such as personal analytics dashboards used by individual web users to manage their own behaviours with respect to learning and information exchange.

Summary of presentation by Mathieu D’AquinMathieu pointed out that data has value. He mentioned the techniques of aggregation of data and anonymisation of data in order to allow us to realise the value of personal data without breaching data protection rules. He addressed the need for research into a potential trade-off in order to minimise the risks of data misuse while retaining the value of the data.

He pointed out that it is extremely challenging to share personal data and to understand what data can be shared. He cited the example of the location of public toilets in the UK as an example of a commonly cited use case of Open Data that was perhaps not very useful but ticked an Open Data box

in an inoffensive way at little cost without making any real difference to people’s lives.

He said that in many local Government organisations, data owners didn’t see data as useful to share. He pointed out that linked data could be created without the need to make assumptions as to how it might be used. He suggested that putting resources into sharing data without any clear proof that it would be used is a leap of faith and is hard to justify. He stated that one of the biggest challenges of publishing public data is for data owners to assess the real value of the data.

He said that data science needs to provide substantial answers as to how, why and what data should be shared and tools to assist publishers in making data interoperable by helping them to understand and measure the return on their investment. He hopes that the research work of open data and open government groups will help in uncovering the value of shared data in healthcare and environment.

Top 5 Asks of Mathieu D’Aquin1. Research into a potential trade-off in order to

minimise the risks of misuse of personal data while still retaining the value of the data.

2. Establish methodologies and tools to evaluate the potential of public datasets to be shared.

3. Closer links between different sectors to uncover the value of shared data.

4. Develop tools to make sure that data remains linkable after the anonymization process.

5. More research and training to enable connections between datasets.


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Panel 1Speaker 2, Dr Fionnuala Donohue

Profile of Fionnuala DonohueFionnuala Donohue ([email protected]) is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the Health Intelligence Unit (HIU) of the Health Service Executive (HSE). After receiving her undergraduate medical degree from UCD Fionnuala worked in a number of clinical posts in hospital and community settings. During this time she completed both a Masters in Public Health (UCD) and Health Informatics (TCD). She then undertook Higher Specialist Training in Public Health Medicine at a number of training sites across Ireland. During this time she completed a research thesis on Patient Registries in Ireland as part of the examination process for Membership of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in Ireland. Since completing her training she has worked as a Consultant in Public Health Medicine at a number of locations before taking up a post in the Health Intelligence Unit of the HSE in 2016. Her current main areas of responsibility include leveraging routinely collected health data to inform decisions in areas such as health service planning, resource distribution analyses, quality assurance/improvement. She is currently a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in Ireland.

Summary of presentation by Fionnuala DonohueFionnuala gave a brief description of the Health Intelligence Unit and where it sits within the HSE organisation structure. (Page 8).

Fionnuala stated that the overarching role of the HIU is to support the quest better health for patients, their families & population by exploiting available data. The HIU has developed the Health Atlas Ireland platform as the key infrastructure to enable this work. This is a flexible secure web based environment which supports a number of key functions across the HSE including population health planning, service monitoring, and evaluation; clinical care; clinical audit; quality assurance/improvement; and health service management. She pointed out that other agencies within the HSE contribute to and use the health atlas. There are a number of different modules within the health atlas that support the varying functions of the HIU.

The HIU does not generate any data but it uses, analyses and displays pre-existing data. Therefore collaboration with data source organisations and departments internally and externally is vital to the on-going work of the HIU. Data is made available within the Health Atlas through a number of data sharing and licencing agreements with the data owners. Best practice regarding the legal obligations of GDPR and the Data Protection Acts are followed and this is incorporated into any access and user management agreement. This is key to fostering a relationship of trust with data providers.

The HIU is very conscious of data protection including the legal basis for it. The following are some of the key pieces of legislation:

• HSE statutory obligation to improve and protect the health and welfare of the public, and to provide evidence based care in the context of available resources, requiring the systematic collection and analysis of data (Health Act 2004, HSE Code of Governance 2015).

• GDPR Article 6(4) permits processing of data for uses beyond the original purpose ….the existence of appropriate safeguards to protect privacy.

• GDPR Article 9 allows for the processing of sensitive personal data (special category) without explicit consent when it is necessary for the purposes of the management of health and social care systems and services.

• Data Protection Act 2018 section 49 supports this by indicating that processing of special categories of data is lawful if necessary for performance of functions assigned by legislation, ie management of health or social care systems and services assigned to the HSE through the Health Act 2004 and other legislation.

In conclusion Fionnuala highlighted that much health data originates from patient encounters with health services and that there is a requirement to use this data to its full extent in order to provide safe efficient high quality care. She said that data protection is vital to protect patients’ rights to privacy and confidentiality and finally that data protection should not occur to the detriment of patient health or safety.


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Top 5 Asks of Fionnuala DonohueFive key asks to support an environment of safe data sharing

1. Development of a governance framework to safely exploit the potential of health and health related data that is in line with best practice in GDPR/data protection and which serves the needs of patients and the population.

2. Ensuring the adoption of data standards across the health sector to ensure the interoperability of the various systems to support whole patient care and increase the quality, safety and efficiency of care provided.

3. Patient data originates from a single source (the patient) but is fragmented by the way in which health services are delivered. This would be greatly facilitated by the widespread adaptation of the unique health identifier. In the absence of this there is a need to develop safe methods to re-associate this data in order to provide safer more efficient care potentially through a trusted “safe haven/third party”.

4. Consideration to be given to geo-coding of health data at the point of data collection to a lower granularity than is currently used in order to enhance the use of health data while still preserving the anonymity of the health record.

5. Ongoing work to continue to build relationships and foster trust both within the health services and with relevant agencies in related areas to create an environment that is conducive to safe sharing of relevant data.

Source: HSE


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Panel 1Speaker 3, Dr Adegboyega Ojo

Profile of Adegboyega OjoAdegboyega Ojo ([email protected]) is a member of the Open Data Governance Board of Ireland. He is a Senior Research Fellow and head of the eGov Centre at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, National University of Ireland, Galway. His research aims to contribute to shaping the vision of Next Generation Government Information and Service Infrastructure. Specifically, he is investigating how to harness the semantic web and linked data in developing the next generation of Electronic Public Service Infrastructures, enabling joined-up policy making and more transparent government processes. He is also investigating how to extract salient information from the social web to inform proactive engagement and management of citizens and how to drive open innovation both in government and governance of Smart Cities through the adoption and exploitation of Big, Open and Linked Data. He is also interested in gaining better understanding of the conditions for effective adoption these innovations in government organizations. Before joining Insight @ NUIG, he worked as Academic Program Officer and Research Fellow at the Center for Electronic Governance, United Nations University – International Institute for Software Technology (UNU). At UNU, he supported governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; including Macao, Korea, Mongolia, Colombia, Cameroon and Nigeria. Before his international engagements, he was Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, where he earlier earned his doctorate and bachelor degrees in 1998 and 1991 respectively. He is a Professional member of ACM and the Computer Professionals of Nigeria.

Summary of presentation by Adegboyega OjoGboyega asks the basic question why we need to share data? He stated that it is not obvious. He said if you are talking about one stop Government, a whole of Government approach, policy coherence and integration or resilience in societies, there are two consistent things, firstly you have to share data, secondly you need co-ordination. He gave an example of a Sars outbreak where Macao escaped with only one case compared to many cases in Hong Kong. He attributed this to data sharing between all agencies and strong co-ordination. He said that there are four key things that are needed for successful

data sharing. One is good practice and standards, second is the organisational layer so that agencies can come together for a common goal. He suggested that if the HSE, EPA and Healthy Ireland wish to collaborate that there needs to be an alignment of goals. The third and most complex thing is organisational arrangement, negotiation, contracts and trust building. He said this is complex because a common goal does not mean that organisations have the same priorities. The fourth thing is the political part. He mentioned the data sharing and governance bill, he said that agencies need clear data sharing protocols and this bill may provide them. He said that clear socio-economic goals are also necessary. He said that frameworks are necessary for collaboration between agencies. He also said that trust is a stand out issue for data sharing between agencies. Trust is anchored by data protection, and it is important that trust is built between the key people who are responsible for sharing data so that data is shared in an appropriate way. He talked about cross border information sharing giving an example of Finland and Estonia sharing health data. He mentioned the use of Open Data as a way to enable data sharing. He also pointed out that data can be shared is a closed system by agencies such as the HSE and EPA using Open Data technologies with graded levels of openness.

Top 5 Asks of Adegboyega Ojo1. Use Open Data technologies to share data

between agencies. These can provide different levels of openness, open to the public or just open to the agencies themselves.

2. A code of practice and standards between agencies who wish to share data.

3. Development of a common goal or an alignment of goals between agencies to allow them to share data.

4. Develop a roadmap for organisational arrangement, negotiation, contracts and trust building.

5. Integration of all data sharing goals with political priorities and legislation.


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Panel 1Speaker 4, Dr Derick Mitchell

Profile of Derick MitchellDerick Mitchell ([email protected]) is the Chief Executive of the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science & Industry (IPPOSI). Derick has over twelve years of experience working in patient involvement, multi-stakeholder management, scientific communications and advocacy at both the national and European level. He has a strong interest in the area of patient and public involvement in research. Derick leads IPPOSI’s participation in the European Patients Academy (EUPATI), an initiative which is training patients to become involved in the medicine’s R&D process, and has spread the IPPOSI public-private partnership model to over 20 countries. Derick is a member of a number of national and international boards including the eHealth Ireland committee; the oversight committee for the National Rare Disease Plan; the Medical and Life Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy, the International Advisory Board of the HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network; the HIQA Research Ethics & HTA Advisory Boards, among others. Derick graduated with a BSc. (Hons) in Biotechnology from NUI Galway (2000) followed by a PhD in Molecular Medicine from University College Dublin (2004).

Summary of presentation by Derick MitchellDerick presented a patient led approach to data sharing on behalf of IPPOSI which has 105 member patient organisations. He highlighted the key aspects of their patient-led platform. Firstly, what do patients know about their rights concerning access to their own health data? Secondly, what are their attitudes to health data sharing? Thirdly, what are the most recent initiatives around data protection legislation and national health information frameworks? Fourthly, what are patient’s opinions on the use of potentially sensitive personal information? He said that trust is key to any data sharing initiative and that there should be no surprises for patients in relation to use of their data. Patients have to have confidence that their data is being managed appropriately and that the system has the capacity to let them know the purposes of sharing their sensitive data. Patient data must only be shared legally, ethically and transparently. Patients should have the right to opt out, if for any reason they don’t want their sensitive

data shared. He cited the care.data1 fiasco in the UK and said we could learn a lot from that. He said that the majority of patients are positive in terms of sharing their anonymised data for research or service delivery purposes but only when their data is used for the purpose that they consented. They want to know if commercial interest is involved. Studies have been done in relation to patient attitudes to data sharing. He commended the new data protection act and the associated regulations for research. He said that the new ‘data consent exemption for research’ committee is a step in the right direction and he gave the example of Dame Fiona Calidcott in the UK who is a health data champion for the UK public, reporting directly to the Minister. He also addressed the required systems architecture to make the best use of data that should be independent of specific vendors to avoid the kind of lock-in which you often see within the health sector. He would like to see patient registries play the role of a trusted third party for the appropriate use and sharing of data. He said that the duty to share data should cover both public and private health providers and should be protected from inappropriate commercial interests. He said access to data is really important for patients. There should be much easier access for patients to their own health data. He said the work of eHealth Ireland and HIQA to develop a patient portal is to be applauded. It is associated with the shared cared record which is a reduced version of a full medical record to be made available to patients. He highlighted the Open NCP initiative with eHealth Ireland which is scheduled to go live in March 2020.

Top 5 Asks of Derick Mitchell1. Appoint a health data champion who reports

directly to the minister for health.

2. Develop a secure patient portal to give patients direct access to their own data.

3. Support for the new consent exemption for research committee.

4. Measures to prevent vendor lock in when linking or sharing health data.

5. Support for the Open NCP initiative.

1 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/06/nhs-to-scrap-single-database-of-patients-medical-details

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/06/nhs-to-scrap-single-database-of-patients-medical-details

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/06/nhs-to-scrap-single-database-of-patients-medical-details

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Questions for Panel 1

Q1 The first questioner who remained anonymous asked about linking health data with environmental data,

in particular air quality and asked at what point when you anonymise data does it become useless? The

questioner said that air quality data becomes useless the minute you lose the geographical identifier but the

address is the first thing to be stripped off the health data. This means it cannot be linked to environmental

monitoring data. So could the linking be done at source? Is it feasible to create an air quality zone that would

be available in HIPE?

A1 Mathieu D’Aquin: It is a very valid question. You can get two datasets anonymized by two organisations

making them unconnectable. He mentioned the need to go beyond talking about interoperability and formats.

He also mentioned the need to make sure that the anonymization process allows the data to remain linkable.

When anonymization is being designed it needs to assess how linkable the data is. He identified the need

to produce an entry point to connect to other datasets. Organizations that collect data do not necessarily

understand or own all aspects of that data. Enabling connections between datasets in order to unlock their

value is something that needs to be understood.

Q2 From a member of the audience who works in the drinking water team in the EPA who cited an

opportunity for data sharing in relation to private drinking water supplies between the HSE, EPA and Local

Authorities. The questioner identified a difficulty in sharing data in relation to private drinking water supplies

in order to improve public health. The questioner suggested involving the person whose supply is being

monitored in the data sharing process.

A2 Fionnuala Donohue said the principles of data sharing are consistent across different domains. The issue

is when you have a number of different providers in the same space, how do you bring all the information

together into a format that is usable. That also links back to the question on air quality data. She said that

county level is way too high a granularity to examine mixed datasets. She said the same issue applies when we

look at issues around health and deprivation. She pointed out that deprivation data is available at small area

level but that health data is usually available only at county level. She suggested that there may be a way to

code health data in order to improve granularity.

Ray Parle from the HSE environmental health service pointed out from the floor that they sample private

drinking water supplies under food safety legislation which has a specific confidentiality clause that debars the

HSE from releasing the data to third parties.

Q3 The issue of open data was raised. The EPA has been sharing data on the Government open data portal.

The questioner asked the panel for their thoughts.

A3 Adegboyega Ojo pointed out that agencies often publish Open Data without any certainty as to what

might happen with it but he reiterated his point that Government agencies can use open data infrastructure to

share data between themselves that is not available to the public. He said that this limited form of Open Data

use is being pioneered in the Netherlands.

Derick Mitchell said that IPPOSI supports open data backed up by open science. He also cited the example of

the Netherlands-led FAIR data principles that make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable for

scientific purposes. He said they have a question around the current Irish data protection legislation about

purpose built consent. He talked about the individual health identifier and the potential for using this in

relation to air quality data for example. He said the identifier could be used to link data but as yet it is not

available in all datasets. It could be used for lower level granularity.

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Panel 2Sharing health and environmental data to promote wellbeingThe second panel explored practical ways in which health and environmental data can be used for research purposes in order to promote our environment, health and wellbeing. They addressed big data, open data, data access, interoperability, standards, classification, recording, data quality, data sharing, data profiling, data portals and data analytics from an environmental and health point of view.

Summary of challenges and issues addressed by Panel 2The challenges and issues specifically addressed by panel 2 are listed in detail below. They include the following:

• Publication of more open data.

• Use of open data licenses.

• Better access to data sets.

• Regular and timely updates of data sets.

• Improved classification and standardisation of datasets.

• Better supports for data sharing.

• GDPR training and supports.

• Recognition of the importance of spatial data and practical support for spatial data infrastructure.

• Data user research and feedback.

• Clear data owners and data domain owners.

• Standardised terminology.

• More support staff to manage data and data sharing.

• Data sharing agreements between agencies.

• Use of common keys and codes for linking data. Eircodes were suggested as location specific identifiers.

• Linkage of local information.

• Provision of longitudinal data to analyse trends over time.

• Structuring of data to facilitate data protection and anonymisation.


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Panel 2Speaker 1, Eoin MacCuirc

Profile of Eoin MacCuircEoin MacCuirc ([email protected]) is the manager of StatCentral which is the portal to Ireland’s Official Statistics provided by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and StatBank the time series database of CSO statistics with data stretching back to 1841. The CSO was established in 1949 as Ireland’s national statistical office. Its status was formalised in legislation with the enactment of the Statistics Act, 1993. The mandate of the CSO, as set out in that Act, is “The collection, compilation, extraction and dissemination for statistical purposes of information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions in the State”. The CSO is also responsible for coordinating the official statistics of other public authorities and for developing the statistical potential of administrative records. Eoin has been working in the CSO since 1993 and decentralised to CSO, Cork in 1994. He has a background in IT having trained as a system analyst and project manager. He is Chairman of the board of directors of Cork Simon Community and has been a volunteer for years. He is also a director of FoodCloud and of Food Cloud Hubs which use IT technology ( an app) to link food surplus with food scarcity.

Summary of presentation by Eoin MacCuircEoin asked why we need to link data? He used the M&M metaphor to explain to the audience why this is important. He said he bought 3 packets of M&M sweets for €1.10 each, a chocolate one, a peanut one and a crispy one. He asked the audience which

they liked. Most of the audience liked chocolate. He asked if that is an informed decision? He pointed out the weight of each packet, chocolate 45g, peanut 45g and crispy 35g. The number of sweets in each packet was chocolate 49, peanut 19 and crispy 32. He said that there is a lot of data on a packet but are we using it to make an informed decision? He talked about Geohive which tries to link health data and EPA data with CSO data. He pointed out that because this data has evolved separately it is very difficult to link together. He referred to the need to link spatial data with health data and statistical data. He said that the CSO found that people tend to care more about spatial data for their own locality. He pointed out that when people search for information such as life expectancy for their local area they tend to get international data on search engines because our agencies don’t publish their data in an internet friendly way. He said that data needs to be structured properly in an open and accessible format for it to be useful. He said that Ireland is beginning to do very well in terms of publishing open data.

He defined open data as follows: Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike. - Open Data Handbook2

He referred to the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud (see below) and pointed out that in the middle of the cloud is the Linked Open Data encyclopedia DBpedia. This data is linked by URI’s so computers can make sense of the context of the data.

2http://opendatahandbook.org/glossary/en/terms/pdf/

Linked open data cloud 2014, by Max Schmachtenberg, Christian Bizer, Anja Jentzsch and Richard Cyganiak.

http://opendatahandbook.org/glossary/en/terms/pdf/


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He referred to the European ESSnet system for statistical data and presented a an info graphic to explain it (see below). He said that the CSO is putting the citizen at the centre of all this data. He pointed out that visualisation of data was much more interesting to citizens than tabular data. He referred to a study which showed tabular data engaged users for an average of 25 seconds while a visualisation of the same data engaged users for an average of 2 minutes and 55 seconds.

Top 5 Asks of Eoin MacCuirc1. HSE EPA to publish more data as open data

under an open data licence.

2. HSE EPA to publish data in open data formats that make it more accessible via API (CSO use JSON-stat).

3. When HSE EPA publish data they drive it down to a local level with spatial geography that is linkable to other relevant datasets i.e. Census geographies.

4. HSE EPA publish data as open data both punctual and timely.

5. HSE EPA publish data as open data they publish to match classifications with other public bodies on common classifications like age, gender, region etc.

ESSnet info graphic


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Panel 2Speaker 2, Fiona O’Rourke

Profile of Fiona O’RourkeFiona O’Rourke (F.O’[email protected]) is the analytics manager with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Fiona graduated from NUIG with a degree in Earth Science before getting her first job in Galway in the “new” area of GIS in 1997. Since then Fiona has completed a Diploma in GIS from UCC and a MSc in Software and Information Systems from NUIG/REGIS. Fiona joined the EPA in 2006 as their GIS Officer before becoming the EPA Data Architect in 2015. As Data Architect Fiona was especially keen to improve the EPA’s open data offerings. Since the end of 2017 Fiona has managed a new team that is developing a data science practice for the EPA. Her team have skills in data analysis, spatial analysis and earth observation. They use these skills to help the EPA identify environmental trends and manage current and emerging risks to Ireland’s environment. Fiona is a member of the Irish Analytics Institute. She is a keen citizen scientist in her spare time for the National Biodiversity Data Centre and as a member

of BirdWatch Ireland. Despite her best efforts she hasn’t managed to convince her two young sons that the Biodiversity app is better than Pokémon Go but she persists.

Summary of presentation by Fiona O’RourkeFiona pointed out that everything to do with the Environment is about place. She referred to earth observation and land cover mapping. She said the EPA data analytics team relied on environmental experts to provide context to the data and she agreed that visualisation is really important. She said that in terms of environment and health that prevention is always better than cure. Preventing pollutants getting into the environment is the best way to protect health. She referred to a project on urban waste water scorecarding (see below), which uses an automatic rating system using traffic light colours to classify monitoring results.

STABLE IMPROVING STARTING TO DETERIORATE DETERIORATING


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Fiona described the typical lifecycle of data in the EPA (see above) and pointed out that organising data properly takes up a lot of time. But time often lessens the opportunity to act on the information derived from the data so it is important to get the balance right between time spent preparing data and the quality of the data. She mentioned the potential of machine learning to help to get data out there more quickly and said that this is what the Corona project is looking at. They are looking at this with Flanders and with a group from Norway. It uses meteorological data which is important in terms of air quality. She mentioned the concept of right time data as opposed to real time data. She also raised the issues of quality, reliability and understandability of data so that people know the action they need to take.

Top 5 Asks of Fiona O’Rourke1. To get support in really understanding how we

operate in the public interest while complying with GDPR.

2. GDPR is important but as we get more mature in dealing with these regulations we need to ensure that we are not using them as an excuse not to share data, but instead properly protecting and safeguarding the data we do share for the valuable health and environment work we do.

3. To recognise the importance of spatial data in environment and health protection and research.

4. To reinvigorate the national Irish Spatial Data Infrastructure group with a practical purpose and focus.

5. To get more feedback from data users and potential data users on the kind of environmental open data that is most valuable to them so that we can prioritise. If we can make the data open this is the easiest way to share it.

Lifecycle of data in the EPA

PlanGet or create

Information

UpdateInformation

Archive & Purge

Information

Commit & Store

Information

Analyse Information

Examples of activitiesAuthenticate the information Decide if it is ok to use Remove duplicates and obvious errors

Prepare Information

Verify Information

Find Information

Share Information


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Panel 2Speaker 3, Theresa Barry

Profile of Theresa BarryTheresa Barry ([email protected]) is working with the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the Health Service Executive (HSE). She is Leading out on Terminology services in particular SNOMED CT. She is the Member Forum representative for Ireland in the SNOMED international group. Her role is to facilitate local projects to leverage and develop SNOMED for their systems whilst giving input to and accessing the international body of knowledge. She facilitates input to the international community and work in Ireland with HIQA and the Department of Health on the SNOMED agenda. SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms) is a standardized, multilingual vocabulary of clinical terminology that is used by physicians and other health care providers for the electronic exchange of clinical health information.

Summary of presentation by Theresa BarryTheresa addressed the issue of standardising our data in the form of electronic records using international best practice. She talked about the methodology where patients present with a problem which is diagnosed by a healthcare professional based on what they learned in college, information from books, research and past experience. They then record the information usually on paper or on charts. The recording of the information can present a problem. Sometimes the recorders have bad handwriting. There is a need to change because people require better information which can be properly analysed and aggregated. We will need to learn to adapt. She mentioned ICD10 which was a classification by statisticians about information output from hospitals and about aggregating and categorising data. She then talked about SNOMED which is a terminology and an ontology for clinicians to record what they did with their patients. SNOMED maps to all of the clinical classifications and terminologies. In 2014 HIQA recommended that we get involved in the SNOMED community. They made the following recommendations:

1. SNOMED CT should be adopted as a national clinical terminology for Ireland immediately.

2. A SNOMED CT National license should be purchased and the resourcing and functioning

of a national release centre for Ireland should commence in 2015.

3. The feasibility of entering into an agreement with a SNOMED CT national release centre in another jurisdiction should be investigated in order to provide support in the short-term (early stages of operation of SNOMED CT in Ireland).

4. SNOMED CT should be introduced gradually on a project-by-project basis with the active support of the SNOMED CT National Release Centre.

5. In order to future proof information communication technology (ICT) investment, the requirement to support SNOMED CT should be included in all relevant software procurements from now on.

6. A review should be undertaken to determine the most appropriate agency to establish and operate the SNOMED CT National Release Centre.

In November 2016 Ireland became the 29th member to join the international SNOMED community.

SNOMED CT is the most comprehensive clinical terminology (see capability map below) available internationally and is machine readable. It is about evidence based healthcare and allows for the international transfer of information which is interoperable. It is organised into 19 hierarchies such as diseases, symptoms, procedures composed of concepts, descriptions and relationships.

• 293,000 concepts• 765,000 descriptions• 830,000 relationships

It links terms such as renal and kidney from an information systems point of view. It aims to meet the interoperability challenge. Theresa highlighted the things that we need in healthcare right now. She said that we need information models, we need data dictionaries, we need messaging standards, we need enterprise architecture, we need information governance, we need drug terminology standards and we need classification. There are now 35 countries involved in SNOMED in 2018. The first full release of SNOMED in Ireland will be in April 2019. She said that the analytics are probably the most important part of SNOMED.


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Top 5 Asks of Theresa Barry1. Data domain owners to be appointed within the

HSE.

2. All datasets should belong to a position within the HSE as a clearly defined owner.

3. Mandate Snomed CT as the clinical terminology standard catalogue for acute health.

4. More health informatics posts to be created in hospitals and other healthcare facilities to manage Electronic Health Records (EHRs).

5. Terminology standards to be agreed for data sharing with outside agencies such as EPA.


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Panel 2Speaker 4, Seán Lyons

Profile of Seán LyonsSeán Lyons ([email protected]) of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) specialises in applied microeconomics, and he manages ESRI research programmes on the telecommunications sector and on the environment. He has published research in a diverse set of areas including energy economics and policy; effects of policies on broadband and mobile telephony; how regulation affects competition; determinants of environmental emissions and effects of climate policy; and the economics of disability. Two themes running through Seán’s work are an interest in the distributional effects of public policy and in the behaviour of individuals as consumers of regulated goods and services. Collaboration is a central element of Seán’s research. He currently participates in several funded collaborative programmes, including research projects on the health effects of urban noise, funded by the EPA, inequalities in local access to GP services, funded by the Health Research Board, and on financial security in Ireland’s older population, funded by the Health Service Executive. Seán has a PhD in Economics from Trinity College Dublin, an MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a

BA in History from TCD. He joined the ESRI in 2007, and his former posts include Partner at Indecon Economic Consultants, Senior Adviser at the ODTR (now ComReg) and Managing Consultant at London Economics. He is a member of the Public Service Pay Commission and the Council of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland.

Summary of presentation by Seán LyonsSeán referred to the question asked of Panel 1 as to whether we would want to merge air pollution data into health data before anonymisation. The answer he said is simply yes. He referred to work described by Ann Nolan earlier in the conference in the broad area of health and the environment using micro data. The goal is to find causal effects on identifiable groups using datasets combining, for a large, representative sample or the population of individuals, detailed, accurate information on health outcomes and specific exposures to environmental pollutants or amenities, taking into account socio-economic behaviour information, removing various confounding factors and observing the same people more than once (i.e. longitudinal). Seán described various datasets that allow the ESRI to do this work (see below).

Health & socioeconomics microdata

TILDA (over 50s)

Health Ireland

GUI (children)

CSO Census and surveys

Radon Other local air pollution Transport noise Drinking water

contaminants Urban Green space (Corine) Blue space Urban walkability (Prime2) Building Energy Ratings etc

HIPI (in-patient cases) PCRS (medication use) Infectious Disease

Reporting System Cancer Registry, etc.

Local environment data

Administration data

Key Linked In progress


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Datasets used by the ESRI for longitudinal research at a national level

Seán talked about the pre-anonymising linkage of longitudinal data from multiple sources including health data, environmental data and socio-economic data.

He said that ways we can facilitate this is to make sure all datasets have detailed spatial identifiers, at least in some secure file. We can develop access protocols to allow spatial linking under secure conditions. We can use environmental exposure variables in a format that does not increase risk of disclosure E.g. code variables as quantiles of exposure rather than continuous variables; in 2nd decile of NO2 exposure rather than 7.52 ppb.

We can also allow researchers access to linked data under secure conditions.

Top 5 Asks of Seán Lyons1. Encourage holders of individual-level health data

and associated socioeconomic characteristics to retain Eircodes or other location-specific identifiers with the raw dataset. This will facilitate later addition of environmental variables.

2. Ensure that consents sought from participants in future state-funded surveys of individuals and households permit linkage of local environmental information.

3. Encourage those collecting environmental data to provide it at high spatial resolution but also to generate a series of such maps over time using consistent methodologies. This could help facilitate longitudinal analysis of environmental exposures, which is more likely to provide convincing evidence about causality than observations at only one point in time.

4. Examine the scope for adding local environmental variables to the major administrative data sources.

5. Consider providing suitably formatted local information on a range of environmental exposures in advance to teams planning collection of health/socioeconomic data in large-scale surveys. This could speed up the processes of data matching and anonymisation, leading to more timely availability of linked data.

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Questions for Panel 2

Q1 Ruth McDermott a public health doctor working in the Department of Public Health East suggested that

all health datasets should include an Eircode reference which will allow us to do spatial analysis using small

areas.

Q2 A second speaker from the audience informed the workshop about the DASSL report3 by Rosalyn

Moran for the Health Research Board (HRB) creating a safe haven to carry out research, providing examples

of detailed clinical work using clinical data.

Q3 Judy Cronin of the public health department in Cork asked speakers to comment on the format of open

data in making it machine readable. She referred to data being published that isn’t really open data.

A3 Eoin McCuirc of the CSO referred to the 5 star measurement of data and pointed out that 1 star open

data such as a PDF file is not machine readable. In contrast 5 star linked open data includes a Universal

Resource Indicator (URI) which is fully machine readable and can also be contextualized. He also referred

to the need to publish open data under an open data license. This enables app developers to be sure that

the required open data can be available on an ongoing basis. The most common license in Ireland is the CC

BY 4.0 license which allows it to be used for any purpose including commercial so long as it is attributed to

the publisher. In summary, open data license, open data format and free to use. He also defined the term

Applications Programmable Interface (API), which is an interface that allows apps on a mobile phone to

read data.

Fiona O’Rourke of the EPA said they have done a lot of work with open data, publishing many datasets on

www.data.gov.ie and now they are looking to publish granular, near real time data. They are now including

API’s as standard in the development of websites. An example is www.catchments.ie which has a machine

readable open data API. Open Data Ireland adds Environmental data as just one overall class, however,

the EPA has prioritized data that impacts on human health. She pointed out that open data does require

resources to produce and therefore output of data needs to be prioritized.

Theresa Barry pointed out that SNOMED CT has standards that allow for the portability of data

internationally, in Europe and in Ireland across different organisations.

Seán Lyons commented that environmental data is not usually sensitive unlike health and socio-economic

data. He pointed out that there is a trade off between making data open and confidentiality concerns

while making data available to researchers. He pointed out that the CSO provides excellent data at different

levels. Much of it is open but in some cases you may have people looking over your shoulder in a controlled

environment while you examine specific datasets. This imposes a high cost on the CSO. In terms of health

organisations such as the HSE, they may need to provide a budget for making hotdesk arrangements

available for research data.

3 https://www.hrb.ie/publications/publication/proposals-for-an-enabling-data-environment-for-health-and-related-research-in-ireland

https://www.hrb.ie/publications/publication/proposals-for-an-enabling-data-environment-for-health-and-related-research-in-ireland


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Commentary on data workshop and related matters

Open data published by the EPA and the HSE on data.gov.ie In total there are 243 datasets published by the EPA and 355 published by the HSE on the Government Open

Data Portal www.data.gov.ie. It is very interesting that the EPA datasets are in general more popular than the

HSE datasets. The most popular HSE datasets are locations of health facilities. Both organisations appear to

have published the data that is easy to publish. The HSE has much more of a culture of caution in terms of

publishing data. This is partly as a result of the fact that a lot of their data is personal data. There are many

other portals and websites used by both organisations to share data both open and with restricted access.

EPA Top 10 datasets by views (December 2018)1. National Soils Map – 1,364 views

The indicative soils map classifies the soils of Ireland on a categorically simplified but cartographically

detailed basis into 25 classes, using an expert rule based methodology.

2. Water Levels and Flow – 1,195 views

This dataset contains hydrometric time series data of water level and river flow in >300 Irish rivers, lakes,

springs and groundwater monitoring sites.

3. National Soils Database – 1,041 views

The National Soil Database has produced a national database of soil geochemistry including point and

spatial distribution maps of major nutrients, major elements, essential trace elements, trace elements of

special interest and minor elements.

4. Register of Protected Areas - Salmonid Water Regs Table – 798 views

This is a dataset of the protected rivers that are designated in the Salmonid Regulations (S.I. 293 / 1988).

5. Irish Soil Information System National Soils Map – 796 views

The new Irish Soil Information System concludes a 5 year programme.

6. National Subsoils Map – 730 views

The Teagasc Subsoils map classifies the subsoils of Ireland into 16 themes, using digital stereo

photogrammetry supported by field work.

7. River Basins – 470 views

River Basins of the Republic of Ireland, created for Article 3 Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC).

8. River Network Routes – 430 views

This national rivers dataset is a route feature class rather than a simple polyline. The geometry is generated

by merging the river lines of individual geometric network datasets.

9. Corine Landcover 2012 – 401 views

Corine Land Cover 2012 is a map of the Irish environmental landscape based on interpretation of satellite

images based on EC established CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) specifications.

10. Hydrometric Areas – 368 views

Ireland’s hydrometric areas, used as management units for hydrological areas (EPA, OPW, ESBI, Local

Authorities etc). They are made up of amalgamations of large river basins.


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HSE Top 10 datasets by views (December 2018)1. List of Pharmacies in Ireland – 2,053 views

A list of Pharmacies in Ireland, with geographical coordinates.

2. List of Hospitals in Ireland – 1,216 views

A list of Hospitals in Ireland, with Eircodes and geographical coordinates.

3. List of Nursing Homes in Ireland – 1,029 views

A list of Nursing Homes in Ireland, with geographical coordinates.

4. General Referrals by Hospital, Department & Year – 500 views

These datasets show the number of e-referrals per hospital departments.

5. Primary Care Reimbursement Service - Pharmacy Fees – 223 views

Payments made to Community Pharmacists in respect of Dispensing Fees

6. Primary Care Reimbursement Service – Claims by General Practitioners - 210 views

The number of Special Type Consultations, Special Items of Service, Fee per

Item and Out of Hours claims each month by CHO area.

7. List of Health Centres in Ireland – 162 views

A list of Health Centres in Ireland, with Eircodes and geographical coordinates.

8. List of Dental Practices in Ireland – 174 views

A list of Dental Practices in Ireland, with geographical coordinates.

9. List of General Practices in Ireland – 151 views

A list of General Practitioners in Ireland, with geographical coordinates.

10. Primary Care Reimbursement Service - Dispensing Doctors – 127 views

Number of Dispensing Doctors and Persons for whom they Dispense by CHO

Legislation and policies relevant to Data SharingThe Data Sharing and Governance Bill 2018 seeks to provide for a generalised legal basis for data sharing

between public bodies for specific, legitimate purposes.

Key objectives of the bill.

• “Making public services more seamless by reducing the burden of providing the same information to

different public bodies;

• Facilitating the effective administration, supervision and control of public services;

• Establishing entitlements to public services;

• Identifying and correcting erroneous information; and

• Evaluating the effectiveness of public services.”

The Public Service ICT Strategy 2015 notes that “sharing of data on a whole of government basis to

support better decision making, drive efficiency and deliver a range of new digital Government services to

citizens and businesses, subject to relevant legislation”.

The recently enacted Data Protection Act 2018 provides for enforcement of the General Data Protection

Regulation (GDPR) – discussed below - by means of complaints to the new Data Protection Commission

(DPC), investigations, information and enforcement notices, court action and – a new feature under the GDPR

– administrative fines. The DPC may impose administrative fines on data controllers or data processors that

infringe the GDPR up to maximum of 4% of worldwide turnover or €20 million, whichever is higher.


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The General Data Protection Regulation

Regulation EU 2016/679, commonly called the General Data Protection Regulation (shortened to ‘GDPR’),

is a 2016 Regulation of the EU that is intended to harmonise and update rules relating to the processing of

personal data:

• of data subjects who are in the EU, and

• by businesses that have operations in the EU, or that offer goods and services to EU residents.

Ireland’s Open Data Strategy 2017-2022To encourage and drive the uptake and use of Open Data and in doing so add value to the economy by

increasing transparency, stimulating new business applications, building trust in Government and improving

the lives of citizens by delivering better services.

This will be achieved by:

• Encouraging the release of all appropriate high value government data as Open

Data by Default

• Building a value driven economy by making it publicly available and freely reusable

ensuring where possible a return on investment for the State.

• Engaging with a broad community of stakeholders to promote and encourage

use of Open Data

Open Data best practice guidelinesBelow is a link to the best practice handbook prepared by the Insight Centre for Data Analytics and

commissioned by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

It states that the aim of any Open Data initiative is not simply to throw datasets onto a website, but to build

a sustainable ecosystem around data that supports social, economic and political impact. An Open Data

Ecosystem is defined by its elements and the relationship between these elements, and can be influenced

by both internal and external factors. Through rich experience in the Open Data domain, an extensive

literature review, and interviews with existing and potential Open Data practitioners, we define the Open Data

Ecosystem Elements as those shown in the diagram below.

https://www.insight-centre.org/sites/default/files/publications/best-practice-handbook.pdf

Elements of an Open Data Eco-System

DataAudit

Privacy

DatasetSelection

Economic Reuse

Public Agency Support

DataAccess

Evaluation

Data User Engage-

ment

Licensing

High-Quality

Data

DataAccess

https://www.insight-centre.org/sites/default/files/publications/best-practice-handbook.pdf


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Overall Recommendations1. HSE and EPA to develop and publish a data sharing agreement online, aligned with similar agreements

with other public bodies such as the CSO.

A data-sharing agreement means an agreement between two or more public bodies which provides for

the disclosure of information by one or more of the parties to the agreement to one or more of the other

parties to the agreement.

Where possible this data should be provided as open data and made publicly available. Generally this

would apply to all data that can be obtained by using Freedom of Information requests. If that is not

possible, it may be possible to share it with selected others subject to specific conditions. Otherwise the

shared data would be restricted for use by the HSE and the EPA only.

2. Establish a data governance group from the EPA and the HSE to evaluate what data can be shared in line

with data protection legislation and best practice. This group would initially identify the highest priority

datasets for both organisations and in the process identify and remove the known barriers. They should

develop a code of practice and standards, a common set of goals, trust building initiatives and a roadmap

for organizational arrangement aligned with political and legislative priorities.

3. Establish a technical group with sufficient resources to ensure that environmental and health data can

be linked seamlessly. This group should ensure that sufficient toolsets are put in place to facilitate data

sharing, data linking, data anonymization and data protection.

4. Agree on common data standards for environment and health data to ensure that interoperability is

possible. This should include a standardized vocabulary, agreements on the alignment of geographical

areas and linked data keys. For personal data there is support for an unique health identifier and the CSO

recommend the use of eircodes as an identifier for geo-data to be anonymized into small area codes.

5. Upgrade and enhance the existing data sharing portals, both open and restricted. The use of open data

technology has been recommended for both open and restricted data. Data visualization tools are also

recommended.

6. Regular training for technical and non-technical staff who use data. Examples of areas to be covered are

data sharing, open data and data protection.

7. Building of sufficient research capacity and resources to facilitate data sharing. This may involve third party

organisations.

8. Develop and provide a best practice handbook for sharing health and environmental data.

9. Open data is a means of sharing data. It should be published because it has a known potential benefit and

not because it is easy to do so. It should be published in more accessible formats and it should be licensed.

(See: suggest a dataset on data.gov.ie).

10. Data protection for personal data is a priority. It needs to be managed properly and provisions for the

public to be able to access data about themselves should be put in place.

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