Mr. Simon McGarr:

I feel Dr. O'Rourke's pain as I went through the same process, which leaves a mark on everybody who experiences it. There was a question about whether, in time, the private sector would have access to, and sight of, these cards. The old social welfare cards, with the Department's logo on them, were brought in by the then Minister, Seamus Brennan. There was hot debate on the use of the cards as ID cards and he stressed that they would not be so used. He created a series of protections to give reassurance to the Dáil and to the public that the purpose of the card was not to be an ID card. He made it an offence for a card to be produced to somebody unless that person was a public body as scheduled in the Act. This prevented people from being pressurised into producing them, mar dhea, voluntarily and it prevented the cards being used in the wider world outside that of the scheduled public bodies. It was a strong measure that gave reassurance that the cards would not turn into ID cards. Section 5 of the Social Welfare and Civil Partnership Bill 2017, which is before this House, proposes withdrawing that protection. It will no longer be an offence and people may ask a person to produce his or her card in the private sector without any consequences. The explanation for this is that people may wish to use it as an ID card.

It seems to be a case of cognitive dissonance for the Government to hold the position that this is not an ID card database while bringing in legislative provisions which specifically remove the protections which prevent it from being an ID card. The private sector has access to these cards in the shape of private sector data processors working for public sector data controllers and gardaí will be able to ask people if they want to show them their card. It may be voluntary and for an individual to decide but there is nothing preventing a garda from asking a person for it, as there has been up until now. The question of whether a garda could ask to see a person's card was presented as the defining characteristic of whether something was an ID card. Section 5 of the Social Welfare and Civil Partnership Bill 2017 raises the question of whether the protections which were baked into the original scheme are being removed, carefully and bit by bit.

We have not seen legislation that addresses why one would do this, and why we might want an ID card that could be used by the private sector. In the course of my FOI explorations in the Department, I came across an internal document describing the "safe" system. Its architecture provided for passing data through to the private sector, which is not provided for in any legislation. If section 5 proceeds as the Government has proposed it, and without any changes, it is not a question of whether this will be used by the private sector but when, with the answer being "shortly". I was asked whether this would be a good or bad thing. I believe it is a further step to deepen the integration of what was a card for dealing with the Department into a national ID card system. If one puts a frog in a pot of water and gradually turns up the heat the frog does not notice that it is being boiled.

Two lessons appear to have been learned by the Irish State from the UK's experience. First, the UK stated that it was bringing in a national entitlements card which allowed people to access public services and this was a successful way to bring it in without calling it an ID card, something which seems to have been taken on board here. Second, we learned that legislation can fail and a project can end and perhaps that is why we have not seen any legislation being brought forward on this. The problem in bringing forward legislation and having a public debate on an issue is that one never knows what way the debate will end.