National University of Ireland Galway (Register of Users)

Updated: June 2019

Does your organisation use the PPSN at present?

Yes.

If so, for what purpose?

Staff: For the purpose of payroll processing.

Students: see below

For the purpose of returning same to the Higher Education Authority and Department of and Social Protection.
For the purpose of returning same to the Revenue Commissioners in claiming Scholarship tax exemptions.
For the purpose of providing receipts to students for parents who may claim tax relief for fees paid in making income tax returns to the Revenue Commissioners.
New measure introduced 2017 for the purposes of matching of incoming students with existing student records in order to identify incoming students as returning students. When we collect this data at the application stage, it is not compulsory to provide this i.e. applicants can still submit an application without providing a PPSN and therefore submit this information voluntarily at the point of application.

The HEA currently requires all third level institutions to record every student against a single record i.e. no individual should have more than one student record. The reason for this is that this will impact the Recurrent Grant Allocation Model (RGAM) which is based on the number of students registered at an institution at any given time. If NUI Galway has students with more than one student record, then it would submit higher student numbers to the HEA than reflected reality. This would result in NUI Galway be apportioned higher levels of funding than it was due

For the purposes of matching students with their SUSI numbers to verify students are registered for SUSI.

Does your organisation exchange the PPS number with any other body? If so please name the relevant bodies and the purpose(s) of the exchange?

Yes.

Staff PPS numbers are shared with the Revenue Commissioners for P45 and P35 purposes, or pensioner tax relief, Department of Social Protection for P35, Special Collections.
Staff PPS numbers are also returned to Central Statistics Office (CSO) under the Statistics (Employer Identification Inquiry) Order of 2017.
Staff PPS numbers are also shared with Banks, AVC providers and other lending agencies with the consent of staff members.
Student PSS numbers are submitted with the Higher Education Authority annual student return.
Student PSS numbers are shared with the Department of Social Protection for the purpose of certifying students studying at NUI Galway.
Student PSS numbers are shared with the Revenue Commissioners for tax relief claims as set out above

Does your organisation have any other plans involving the use of the PPS number?

None other than continued use as referred to above.

There is a duty to ensure compliance with the principles of processing personal data which are set out in Article 5(1) and 5(2) of the GDPR.

These principles are summarised as follows

Process it lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner;
Collect it only for one or more speciﬁed, explicit and legitimate purposes, and do not otherwise use it in a way that is incompatible with those purposes;
Ensure it is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purpose it is processed;
Keep it accurate and up-to-date and erase or rectify any inaccurate data without delay;
Where it is kept in a way that allows you to identify who the data is about, retain it for no longer than is necessary;
Keep it secure by using appropriate technical and/or organisational security measures;
Be able to demonstrate your compliance with the above principles; and
Respond to requests by individuals seeking to exercise their data protection rights (for example the right of access)

Have you measures in place to ensure that the Public Service Identity data you hold/collect whether in electronic or written format is in line with the GDPR Principles described above?

All data relating to staff /students is stored on secure databases. Access is restricted to staff members requiring access to complete their duties. Students are given access to their personal data only