data.gov.ie API

Free Irish government open data API with no key: 22,000+ datasets with EU high-value dataset flags and legislation references. Standard CKAN interface. Tested example included.

No API key requiredHTTPSFree tier

Endpoint tested and returned HTTP 200 on 2026-08-21

What is the data.gov.ie API?

data.gov.ie is Ireland's national open data portal, exposing a free, key-free CKAN API. It offers search and metadata access to more than 22,000 datasets from Irish government departments, agencies and local authorities, annotated with EU high-value dataset classifications.

Ireland's portal is a good example of the EU Open Data Directive in practice. Datasets carry a `high_value_dataset` boolean and an `hvd_category` URI pointing at the EU vocabulary, plus `applicable_legislation` references to the specific regulation that mandates publication. That means you can programmatically filter to the datasets the EU requires to be free and machine-readable — geospatial, earth observation, meteorological, statistical, company and mobility data.

Underneath it is standard CKAN, so the query interface matches Australia's, Finland's and dozens of others: `package_search` with a Solr `q`, `rows` and `start`. Unlike data.gov.au, Ireland mounts the API at the conventional `/api/3/action/...` path. Coverage skews toward statistics from the CSO, geospatial data from Ordnance Survey Ireland, and local authority datasets.

Quick facts

Base URL: https://data.gov.ie/api/3/action
Authentication: No API key for read operations. Publisher accounts and tokens are only needed to create or edit datasets.
Rate limit: No published limit. Reasonable paging is expected.
Pricing: Free. Most datasets are CC BY 4.0; check `license_id` per dataset.
CORS: Not enabled — call it from your server
Official docs: Read the docs

How to use the data.gov.ie API

Every request below was executed against the live API on 2026-08-21, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

1. Search Irish government datasets

GET https://data.gov.ie/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1

curl

curl 'https://data.gov.ie/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1'

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://data.gov.ie/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python (requests)

import requests

res = requests.get("https://data.gov.ie/api/3/action/package_search?rows=1", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response — HTTP 200 (truncated)

{
  "help": "https://data.gov.ie/api/3/action/help_show?name=package_search",
  "success": true,
  "result": {
    "count": 22619,
    "facets": {},
    "results": [
      {
        "applicable_legislation": [
          "http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/138/oj"
        ],
        "author": null,
        "author_email": null,
        "conforms_to": "",
        "contact_email": "",
        "contact_name": "",
        "contact_phone": "",
        "creator_user_id": "0863c6bf-d7d8-485b-94b7-d50a11d5796d",
        "frequency": "Continuous",
        "high_value_dataset": true,
        "hvd_category": "http://data.europa.eu/bna/c_e1da4e07",
        "id": "6b230946-7f9f-4369-996d-a0b09094dd02",
        "isopen": true,
        "language": "en",
        "license_id": "CC-BY-4.0",
        "license_title": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0",
        "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
        "maintainer": null,
        "maintainer_email": null,
        "metadata_created": "2025-10-20T12:58:11.867873",
        "metadata_modified": "2025-10-20T12:58:58.730179",
        "name": "valuation-office-api",
        "notes_translated": {
          "en": "The REST Web Services API provides a REST interface to retrieve Valuation Division data in real-time in relation to post-Revaluation Rating Authority areas. The post-Revaluation Rating Authority areas are Carlow, Cavan, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, South Dublin, Tipperary, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow County Coun

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`q`	query	Optional	Free-text Solr query across titles, descriptions and tags. `population`
`rows`	query	Optional	How many datasets to return per page. Defaults to 20. `1`
`start`	query	Optional	Pagination offset. `0`
`fq`	query	Optional	Filter query, for example `high_value_dataset:true` to restrict to EU high-value datasets. `high_value_dataset:true`
`facet.field`	query	Optional	Request facet counts for fields such as organisation, licence or format. `["organization"]`

Response fields

successboolean: Whether the CKAN action succeeded. Check it independently of the HTTP status.
result.countinteger: Total datasets matching the query.
results[].title / notesstring: Dataset title and description.
results[].high_value_datasetboolean: Whether the EU Open Data Directive classifies this as a high-value dataset that must be freely available.
results[].hvd_categorystring: EU vocabulary URI naming which high-value category applies.
results[].applicable_legislationarray: ELI URIs for the EU legislation mandating publication — useful provenance for compliance work.
results[].frequencystring: Stated update cadence, such as `Continuous`, `Annual` or `Monthly`.
results[].resourcesarray: Downloadable files and API endpoints, each with format and direct URL.

What you can build with the data.gov.ie API

Find Irish census, health or transport statistics programmatically
Filter to EU high-value datasets across national portals
Harvest Irish dataset metadata into a wider catalogue
Monitor an Irish agency for newly published data

Common errors and how to fix them

HTTP 200 with success false

CKAN rejected the parameters.

Fix: Read `error.message` in the body; CKAN signals validation problems there rather than through the status code.

400

Malformed Solr syntax in `q` or `fq`.

Fix: Unbalanced quotes and stray colons break the Solr parser. Test the query in the portal's own search first.

Empty results

The free-text query matched nothing.

Fix: Irish datasets often use official terminology — try the publishing body's own wording, or browse `organization_list` first.

data.gov.ie API — frequently asked questions

Is the data.gov.ie API free?

Yes, all read operations are free with no API key. Only dataset creation and editing require a publisher account and token.

What is a high-value dataset?

A category defined by the EU Open Data Directive covering geospatial, earth observation, meteorological, statistical, company and mobility data that member states must publish free and machine-readable. data.gov.ie flags these with a `high_value_dataset` boolean, so you can filter to them directly.

Does data.gov.ie use the same API as other national portals?

Yes. It runs CKAN, the same platform as data.gov.au, Finland's avoindata.fi and many others, so the same client works across all of them — only the base URL changes. Ireland uses the conventional `/api/3/action/...` path.

What licence applies to Irish open data?

Most datasets are Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, which permits commercial reuse with attribution, but it varies by publisher. Always read `license_id` on the individual dataset.

Tools that pair with this API

CSV to JSON Converter

Convert CSV to a JSON array of objects online. Header-row detection, comma/semicolon/tab delimiters and pretty-printed output — 100% in your browser.

JSON to CSV Converter

Convert a JSON array of objects to CSV online. Automatic column headers from the union of all keys, delimiter choice and proper quoting — all in-browser.

CSV Viewer & Table

View CSV as a clean HTML table online. Live search filter, row and column counts, delimiter and header options — all processed locally in your browser.

data.gov.ie is an independent third-party service and is not affiliated with ByteTools or ByteVancer. Details on this page were verified on 2026-08-21; always check the official documentation before relying on this API in production, as terms and limits can change.