What is Open Data?
The Open Data and Re-use of Public Sector Information Directive, commonly known as the Open Data Directive was transposed in to Irish Law on 22nd July 2021 by SI 376/2021.
Open Data gives everyone access to non-personal government data which can deliver enhanced economic, social, environmental and democratic benefits to all. The Open Data Initiative is designed to benefit society by increasing the amount of governmental data available to the public, promoting enhanced innovation and fair competition.
How Much Does It Cost?
There is no charge for submitting a request in respect of Open Data. However, a fee of €20 per hour will apply for requests to be determined to be in excess of 5 hours.
Where a fee applies the Data officer will contact the requestor to discuss a reduction of scope.
The central portal which provides access to all governmental open data is Data.gov.ie
Any individual or entity may make a request to a public sector body to release documents /data for re-use.
Requests for Open Data
The request should clearly indicate that it is being made under the Open Data Directive. The Directive provides that a public sector body should respond to an Open Data request:
- within 20 working days from receipt of the request,
- or if it is a complex request, within 40 working days.
Where, due to the extent or complexity of the request, processing will take longer than 20 working days from receipt of the request, the public sector body concerned shall advise the requester accordingly within fifteen working days after the initial request was received. In such circumstances the public sector body should respond in full to the request within 40 working days from receipt of the request.
Appeals
Where a requestor is not happy with the public body’s decision on your request, they can appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner which is an independent appeals body and have the power to affirm, annul or vary the public body’s decision.
Licence Statement
All data and metadata published on Gov.ie by TUS is under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) Licence
Under the CC-BY Licence, users must acknowledge the source of the Information in their product or application. Where the Information Provider does not provide a specific attribution statement, users should include, or link to, this attribution statement: “Contains Irish Public Sector Data licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence”.
The Department’s Open Data portal provides access to official non-personal government data, in open format. The datasets are published under an open licence so it can be freely used, re-used, and redistributed.
Disclaimer
All data linked to the Open Data portal is published “as is”. The Information is licensed ‘as is’ and Technological University of the Shannon and/or Licensor excludes all representations, warranties, obligations and liabilities in relation to the Information to the maximum extent permitted by law.
The Information Provider and/or Licensor are not liable for any errors or omissions in the Information and shall not be liable for any loss, injury or damage of any kind caused by its use. The Information Provider does not guarantee the continued supply of the Information.
All Open Data Sets have been/will be published on Ireland Open Data Portal Data.gov.ie
Publication
Details of all non-personal Open Data requests will be recorded on an Open Data disclosure log which will be published on the TUS website in due course.
Contact
If you have any questions/ or require assistance in relation to Open Data Requests please contact: datacompliance@tus.ie.