Dr. Maeve O'Rourke:

As amended, exactly. I asked if they had a version which was current, up to date, consolidated, revised or whatever term is preferred, that they used to come up with this appendix. They said that if I submitted my request via email they would get back to me. I did that two days ago. I have not received the version of the legislation that they rely on. The Law Reform Commission is doing a really important job of revising Acts that are important to the public. However, they have not worked on the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, which given its importance to so many people in society, its length and the number of times it has been amended, is unfortunate. Of course, they have their resource constraints.

I find it amazing, given the public importance of this issue, that we are not discussing a piece of legislation that tells us what the legislative basis for the card is. I do not understand why there is only a grid or why I cannot check what is written here against the legislation. For example, the appendix to the Department's guide describes a power whereby: "The Minister will retain, in electronic form, the photograph and signature obtained under the process set out in Section 263B (1)."

That might suggest that there are processes prescribed to keep this information safe and to provide legal, explicit provision for the safeguards that are so clearly required when we have a database with this kind of information in it. However, when I found my way to the current version of section 263B (1), I found that it simply says that the Minister shall retain it "in such manner that allows such photograph, other record or signature to be reproduced by electronic means".

It is important to be able to check what is asserted as the legal basis against the actual legislation. It is important for the rule of law, democracy and access to justice for individual people. I thought it would be helpful to describe the difficulties I had, and to let the committee know that I submitted that request. I went everywhere I could. I went to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Simon and Digital Rights Ireland, and I could not find a copy of the revised or amended legislation.