Terms of Use and Cookies Policy

General Information

The Medical Council regulates medical doctors in the Republic of Ireland. The Council's purpose is to protect the public by promoting and better ensuring high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training and competence among doctors. In order for the Medical Council to communicate efficiently with the public, we have an interactive website where a number of services can be accessed. The web address of our website is www.medicalcouncil.ie.

In this Cookie Policy, “we”, “us”, “our” means the Medical Council.

For an Irish language version of our Cookie Policy, please see here - Beartas Fianáin.

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a simple text file (or a small piece of data) that is stored on a computer or mobile device by a website’s server. Most websites use cookies in order to improve the visitor experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’). Cookies can remember information about you such as language settings and login information i.e., how you use our website. We hope that by using cookies our website will improve your experience and you can access the services you desire as efficiently as possible.

Why we use Cookies

The Medical Council would like our website to be easy to use, reliable and practical. In order for this to be achieved, we set cookies called first-party cookies. By placing first-party cookies on the user’s browser they contribute to the following:

• making our website secure
• carrying out our statutory functions efficiently 
• making sure our website works well for you
• remembering your preferences where necessary, such as your login details
• gathering anonymised information about the functioning of our website and campaigns
• personalising the website to display relevant content to you improving the guidance and materials available to you. 

Types of Cookies we use

We use the following category of cookies:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies – these make our website work. These cookies are essential for you to browse the website and use its features, such as page navigation, accessing secure areas of the site and complying with data protection and electronic privacy legislation. We can set these cookies without needing your consent as they are essential.
• Analytical Cookies – these collect information about your use of our website, for example which pages people go to. The data collected by the cookies are all anonymised and aggregated. We will get information about what country your device is in, what type of device you are using, how long people stay on website pages and how many website pages that you visit. We don’t capture any information, like IP addresses, demographics or your interests, so none of this information can be used to identify you. We don’t ask for your consent to set these cookies as the information is being tracked anonymously, however you can opt-out and you can find out how to do this in the ‘How can I control cookies’ section below.
• Marketing Cookies – We use marketing cookies that store user data and behaviour information. Collecting anonymous data about your web browser helps us target our audience more effectively. These cookies also allow embedded YouTube videos to be played on our website. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.

For a list of cookies, their purpose and duration used by our website please see below. It is important to note that this list may change. We will update this Policy accordingly:

List of Strictly Necessary Cookies

List of Analytical Cookies

List of Marketing Cookies

How can I control Cookies?

Our website also uses some third-party cookies to deliver the content and provide the user with a reliable and competent platform. The information that these cookies collect, including IP address and therefore location details, are not tracked by us but may be used by third parties such as Google Analytics and YouTube. To update your cookie consent settings, please click here. 

If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser settings so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.

Alternatively, if you don’t want cookies to be stored on your devices, most browsers allow you to set and opt out of tracking technologies. Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers by selecting each of the following options:

• Google Chrome
• Apple Safari
• Microsoft Edge

For further details on our privacy policies click here.

What does the law say?

 The Medical Council is subject to the EU ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC) as amended by 2009/136/EC) and the Irish e Privacy Regulations, implemented by Statutory Instrument (S.I.) No. 336 of 2011. This legislation is separate to, but complements the Data Protection Acts (1988-2018), including the GDPR which says we need to provide you with information on the cookies used on our website.  The law says we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. If you would like to find out more about how cookies work, then please visit www.aboutcookies.org.

If you wish to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commission regarding our use of cookies, please see their contact details below, though we would welcome the opportunity to address your concerns before that:

Data Protection Commission (online contact form) or by post at:

Data Protection Commission
21 Fitzwilliam Square South
Dublin 2
D02 RD28
Ireland

Or by phone on: 01 7650100 / 1800 437 737

Opening hours:

09:30 - 13:00 hrs (Monday to Friday)
14:00 - 17:30 hrs (Monday to Friday)

General Website Information

This website contains general information about the Medical Council and about our services. The materials contained on (and the publications provided within) this website are not intended to provide, and do not constitute or comprise, advice on any particular matter. They are provided for general information purposes only. You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of any material contained on (or publications provided within) this website, without seeking appropriate professional advice.

Your use of this Website is subject to these terms and conditions of use. By using this Website you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

Disclaimer

This website is available without any representations or warranties of any kind, either express or implied. The Medical Council make no representations, warranties or undertakings about any of the materials or any content or information on any other website referred to or accessed by hypertext link or otherwise through this website ("third party site"). The Medical Council does not endorse or approve the content of any third party site, nor will the Medical Council have any liability in connection with any third party site.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, neither he Medical Council nor any partners, associates, consultants, employees, affiliates or other representatives thereof will be liable for loss or damage arising out of or in connection with your use of the materials or any facilities or services offered through this website (including, but not limited to, indirect or consequential loss or damages, loss of data, income, profit or opportunity, loss of or damage to property and claims of third parties) even if the Medical Council has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages or such loss or damages were reasonably foreseeable.

Data Protection and Privacy Statement

The Medical Council respects your right to privacy. Visitors are advised that each time they visit a Website two general levels of information about their visit can be retained. The first level comprises statistical and other analytical information collected on an aggregate and non-individual specific basis of all browsers who visit the site. The second is information which is personal or particular to a specific visitor who knowingly chooses to provide that information.

The statistical and analytical information provides general and not individually specific information about the number of people who visit this website; the number of people who return to this site; the pages that they visit; where they were before they came to this site and the page in the site at which they exited. This information helps us monitor traffic on our website so that we can manage the site's capacity and efficiency. It also helps us to understand which parts of this site are most popular and generally to assess user behaviour and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the site.

Through this Website you may have an opportunity to send us information, such as through the "contact us" pages or any other area where you may send e-mails, request brochures or provide feedback. By choosing to participate in these, you will be providing us with some level of personal information relating to you. This information will only be used by Medical Council for (i) the purposes for which it was provided by you; (ii) verification purposes and statistical analysis; and (iii) marketing and administration purposes.