Following concerns from some parents about the integrity of the Department of Education and Youth’s online Parental Survey and its potential abuse, the Dept has sent assurances to this paper that the survey is secure.
According to a Department of Education and Youth spokesperson, “The department has robust and multi-layered arrangements in place to ensure the integrity and security of the primary school survey process.”
One parent told The Irish Catholic that they had filled out the survey several times using the same Eircode but from different devices.
“I was able to access the survey through the link provided and input my eircode and fill in the survey for myself (my household) detailing my preferences of school type (single or multiple sex, denominational or not, Irish/English language).
I was then able to log onto the survey for another device and complete it again for the same eircode.
From the same device, I was able to insert an alternative eircode (of my neighbour, but it could have been any Eircode) and complete the survey on their behalf.
It is possible to complete the survey multiple times – possibly even an infinite number of times, for one address, or any (all) eircodes.
There does not seem to be any controls to verify that the person actually lives at the specific eircode nor to prevent multiple submissions for a single, or many eircodes.
An activist would be able to submit anonymously and randomly to bias a survey for a particular school, or indeed for the whole country if they were so inclined.
Someone with the right skills could possibly be even able to run a computer programme to complete the survey repeatedly” they said.
However the Department said: “ The Eircode parents and guardians provide to the primary schools their children attend is a key aspect for those undertaking the survey. Submitted Eircodes are checked against the department’s Primary Online Database (POD) in respect of primary school children and Child Benefit data in respect of younger children to ensure that the responses are from households with primary school children or younger children. The department’s validation process also involves checks for duplicate responses. Measures are taken to ensure only one submission is counted. In cases where a pattern of multiple submission is detected, the Eircodes are flagged and appropriate actions can be taken to deal with same. If multiple occurrences of suspect activity occur, additional security measures can be deployed to eliminate the ability of automated responses.
The survey process has been peer reviewed by the Central Statistics Office who are the State’s experts in undertaking survey processes.”
