Mr. Robert Watt:

For 2017, the Garda has been given the resources to increase recruitment of civilian staff by 500 and to have 800 new trainee gardaí coming on stream. There is a significant increase in the resources now available to provide additional services within the justice family of Votes, in particular the Garda Vote.

Within the employment control framework under the delegated arrangements that have been in place for a number of years, the Garda itself can decide the allocation of resources. If the budget is there, it can recruit. For very senior positions, there is a restriction that they have to undergo an approval process with the Department of Justice and Equality and, ultimately, ourselves. I will come back to the Deputy in respect of the communications unit in Castlebar because I am not exactly sure of the details of that and what has been the delay. There has been ongoing discussion between the Department of Justice and Equality, ourselves and the Garda about the nature of recruitment, open recruitment and the types of skills mix that are required within the Garda, but I will come back to the Deputy specifically in regard to the Castlebar matter. Overall the Garda has delegated authority and sanction to recruit up to a certain level. With the senior levels, there is a different process in place.

In regard to ICT, we have in place the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, OGCIO. We now have an office within the Department and it is involved in a number of issues.

Perhaps we could provide a separate briefing on such issues as digital identifier and verification to Deputy Ryan. There are a number of provisions in place which we have been building on. There is the public service card and the data behind the public service card. There are now 2.5 million people who have a public service card. Two weeks ago, we launched myGovID, which, in effect, is the online version of that. If somebody has gone through public service card verification, in other words, the SAFE 2 process, he or she can now apply for a variety of different schemes online through myGovID on the basis that he or she will have a digital password. In effect, his or her PPSN number and a digital password will be the way in which they will access public services in the future. The plan is to increase the number of people with the public service card who have gone through SAFE 2 and then, over time, increase the digital offering through myGovID so that more services are available so that people can renew their driving licence, passport, access various social welfare services, etc. That is on the basis of, in effect, the digital verifier the Deputy is talking about. It is the public service card, the SAFE 2 process and the verification process that people have to go through in order to access things. That programme of reform in regard to data sharing, safety of verification, etc., is ongoing. We would be happy to provide the Deputy with more detail on where we are now with our plans for the future in regard to that.