Cookie settings
This page explains which cookies our website uses and how you can change your choices at any time. Last updated 28 September 2026.
- A small number of cookies are strictly necessary to make the site work. These do not need your consent and cannot be switched off.
- All other cookies, for analytics and advertising, are off until you switch them on. Nothing is pre-ticked.
- The cookie banner offers Accept all and Reject all side by side, with equal prominence, and Manage cookies for choosing category by category.
- You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page.
- We ask you again after six months.
- We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with advertisers unless you have agreed.
| Cookie | A small text file that a website asks your browser to store on your device, and can read back on a later page or a later visit. |
| Session cookie | A cookie that lasts only as long as your browser is open. It is deleted when you close the browser. |
| Persistent cookie | A cookie with an expiry date. It stays on your device until that date or until you delete it. |
| First-party cookie | A cookie set by us. |
| Third-party cookie | A cookie set by another company whose service appears on our pages. |
| Strictly necessary | Has a narrow legal meaning here. It means the site cannot provide the service you have explicitly asked for without it. It does not mean useful, or convenient for us. |
| Consent | A yes that you give freely and can withdraw as easily as you gave it. Continuing to browse is not consent, and neither is closing the banner. |
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They let the site remember things, such as that you are signed in, what is in your basket and which cookies you agreed to, so that you do not have to tell it again on the next page.
Some cookies are placed by us. Others are set by third-party services that appear on our pages. This policy covers both. It also covers similar technologies that read from or write to your device, whether or not they are technically cookies.
2. Why we use cookies
- To operate the site. To keep your basket, keep you signed in and protect the forms you submit. Without these cookies the site cannot provide the service you came to it for.
- To remember your cookie choice. So that the banner does not ask you the same question on every page.
- To understand how the site is used. Which pages people find, where they have difficulty and which product listings work. Only with your consent.
- To measure our advertising. Whether an advert led to a visit or an order and, where you allow it, to show you relevant adverts. Only with your consent.
The first two apply whatever you choose. The last two do not happen at all unless you agree.
3. The cookies we use
| Category | Cookie | What it does | How long it lasts | Consent position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Session cookie | Keeps the pages of your visit connected to each other and keeps you signed in | Session. Deleted when you close your browser | No consent needed. Exempt under Regulation 5(5) of S.I. No. 336 of 2011, as strictly necessary to provide the service you asked for |
| Strictly necessary | Basket cookie | Remembers what you have put in your basket as you move around the site | To be confirmed | No consent needed. Same exemption. Without it there is no basket |
| Strictly necessary | CSRF token | Security. Stops a form you submit being tampered with by another site | Session. Deleted when you close your browser | No consent needed. Same exemption |
| Strictly necessary | Cookie consent preference cookie | Remembers the choice you made in the banner, so that we can act on it and you are not asked again on every page | Six months (see Section 6) | No consent needed. Same exemption. We cannot act on a refusal unless we can record it |
| Analytics | Google Analytics 4: _ga, _ga_*, _gid | Measures how people find and use the site, so that we can improve it | Set by Google, not by us. To be confirmed | Consent required. Not set at all unless you accept analytics cookies. You can withdraw your consent at any time |
| Marketing and advertising | Google Ads: IDE, _gcl_au; and Google Tag Manager, which loads the tags above | Measures whether our advertising works and, where you allow it, supports relevant adverts | Set by Google, not by us. To be confirmed | Consent required. Not set at all unless you accept advertising cookies. You can withdraw your consent at any time |
Strictly necessary cookies do not need your consent because Irish law exempts storage that is strictly necessary to provide a service you have explicitly asked for (see Section 8). All other cookies are set only with your consent.
4. Google Consent Mode
We use Google Consent Mode v2. It sends Google four signals that describe what you agreed to: analytics_storage, ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization. All four are set to denied before you make any choice, and are changed to granted only for the categories you accept.
If you decline, no analytics or advertising cookies are set or read. What happens beyond that depends on which of the two versions of Consent Mode is in use:
- Basic Consent Mode. Google's tags do not load at all until you accept. If you decline, nothing is sent to Google.
- Advanced Consent Mode. Google's tags load on the page and send a cookieless ping even when you decline. That ping sets and reads no cookies and carries no advertising identifier, but the request itself still carries your IP address, along with basic information such as the page and the time. Google uses some of this to estimate, rather than measure, overall traffic.
Consent Mode is a Google product feature, not a legal standard. The law that applies is set out in Section 8.
5. Third-party cookies
Some cookies are set by third-party services that appear on our pages. We choose which services to use and when they may run, but we do not control the cookies themselves. Those are governed by the third party's own privacy and cookie policies.
The third-party services we use are Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Tag Manager. Google's privacy policy is published at policies.google.com/privacy. Google is named as a recipient of personal data, and as a transfer outside the European Economic Area, in our Privacy notice.
In Google Analytics 4, the handling of IP addresses is carried out by Google and is not a setting of ours. Google states that IP addresses from traffic in the European Union are used to derive approximate location and are not logged or stored.
6. How long cookies last and when we ask again
Session cookies are deleted automatically when you close your browser. Persistent cookies stay on your device until they expire or until you delete them. The expiry of each cookie we use is shown in the table in Section 3.
Your cookie choice is stored for six months. After six months we ask you again, whatever you chose the first time. We do not ask you again before then unless you choose to change your settings.
You can change your choice at any time before the six months are up, using the Cookie settings link in the footer of any page.
7. Managing your cookies
You can choose which optional cookies are used on your device, in the following ways.
- The banner on your first visit. It offers Accept all and Reject all as two buttons of equal prominence, shown together at the same level, so that refusing is no harder than accepting. Alongside them, Manage cookies lets you accept some categories and refuse others.
- Nothing is pre-ticked. Analytics and advertising cookies are off until you switch them on. Closing the banner, scrolling or continuing to browse is not consent, and we do not treat it as consent.
- Changing your choice. The Cookie settings link in the footer of every page reopens your choices. You can withdraw consent as easily as you gave it. Withdrawing consent has no effect on the service you receive.
- Browser settings. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies, and your browser's help pages explain how. Blocking all cookies, including the strictly necessary ones, will stop parts of the site working, in particular the basket.
- Google opt-out. The Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, stops your data being used by Google Analytics on every website, not only ours.
8. The law that applies
Two separate sets of rules apply, and they deal with two different questions.
- Whether we may store anything on your device at all is governed in Ireland by the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Privacy and Electronic Communications) Regulations 2011, S.I. No. 336 of 2011, which transpose the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC. The rule is consent, given after clear and comprehensive information. The exception, at Regulation 5(5), covers storage or access that is strictly necessary to provide the service you have explicitly asked for. Our strictly necessary cookies rely on this exception.
- What we then do with any personal data collected is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Acts 1988–2018. This is set out in our Privacy notice, including your rights and how to exercise them.
The supervisory authority for both is the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, www.dataprotection.ie. You can complain to the Commission about cookies at any time. You may contact us first at sales@hayesfirstaid.com, but you do not need to.
9. Contact us
If you have a question about cookies, or about anything on this page, please contact us.
| sales@hayesfirstaid.com | |
| Phone | 069 66006 or 01 5079900 |
| Address | MacroMed Healthcare Limited, t/a Hayes First Aid, Castle Demesne, Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, V42 N220 |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00 (GMT). Closed on Irish public holidays |
10. Changes to this policy
We update this policy when the cookies we use change, or when the law changes. The last-updated date on this page shows which version is current.
Where we start using a cookie that needs your consent, we will ask you for it. Where a change materially affects what is stored on your device, we will say so on this page. We will not treat your continued use of this website as agreement to a change.
Related policies: Privacy notice, Terms and conditions, Delivery and returns.
