Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the members had let me finish the statement, they might not have been prompted to shout at me. There are 3.2 million active users of the card. There are only 1.2 million recipients of services from within my Department. The other 2 million people who have the cards got them for the crack. They just got them because they wanted to have them in their back pocket. I put it to the members that the vast majority of people think this is a good idea. As I said earlier, most people the Deputy speaks to actually enjoy having the card and they use it for a variety of purposes and nobody is made to get a card. People are invited to go through the SAFE 2 authentication process, and more than 4 million times people have come into our offices and freely provided the information required to go through that identification process, and have done so. Are there people who are ideologically opposed to the card? Absolutely there are, but that is fine and is totally allowed. This is why we have alternative routes to access all public services, albeit they would not be able to do it online-----