David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Data Protection Commission, DPC, was due to appear before the committee routinely anyway. The public services card issue has since emerged, with a report on it published the day before yesterday. The issue has been in the public domain in recent months. Will the Chairman clarify what we can deal with at next week's meeting with the DPC? A section in the report refers to a chapter in a special report that the Comptroller and Auditor General published in 2015. The previous Committee of Public Accounts dealt with this matter. The chapter considered a number of matters, including whether there were proper business cases underpinning the model and the number of cards to be issued. The procurement contract was based on a target of 3 million cards, which has not been reached. What was most extraordinary from the report was the interaction between the Department and the commission. The pushback from the Department was extraordinary. I have never seen anything like it. The DPC is an independent statutory body and the thought struck me that, if that is how the Department treats it, how does the Department treat everyone else? Issues regarding how the Department treated journalists who made freedom of information requests also surfaced. There is a large amount to look at in terms of the process and value for money elements of the public services card. Our questions are more for the Department than for the DPC. Is it just the DPC that will be appearing before us?