What does “open data” mean?

In Ireland, the re-use of public information is strongly promoted as a fundamental resource for governments, business and civil society.

Under Irish law, Public Sector data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon data, even commercially, as long as they credit the originator for the original creation. Creative Commons (which is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to building a globally-accessible public commons of knowledge and culture) recommends CC-BY for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. Under the CC-BY Licence, users must acknowledge the source of the Information in their product or application.

Usually the data has been licensed by its Public Sector publisher ‘as is’. This means that the information provider and/or licensor in each case denies all liabilities in relation to the data, is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for any loss, injury or damage of any kind caused by its use. Nor do public information providers guarantee the continued supply of the data. Benefacts makes it available on the same terms.

Last updated 21 May 2020