Mr. Simon McGarr:

Yes. I cannot from memory tell the committee under which of the SAFE levels of access it would be given, but SAFE 1, SAFE 2 and SAFE 3 are categories invented by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General, just inventing them cost €1 million.

Upon examination, the definition of the SAFE process at SAFE 2 level, which is the one the Government says it wishes to apply in the case of public services cards and involves a person attending at a location, having his or her photograph independently assessed by someone who will confirm that he or she is that person, and producing documentation showing that he or she is the person, almost exactly describes the method of going to a Garda station to have a passport photograph dealt with. One could easily argue that the passport process meets the SAFE 2 requirements as well. What it does not do is end up with a database entry. It appears that, although the SAFE 2 requirements are presented as merely being a desire to ensure that people are who they say they are, there is an unspoken expectation that, at the end of that process, the providers will have a great deal of data that can be placed in a database, which does not happen with a visit to a Garda station to confirm one's identity.