Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am a little worried in spite of the assurances. I do not think answers are being given. I do not think they can be given in certain instances. For example, many people regard their PPSN as private personal information. I cannot understand that has to be supplied or put it into the chain or system so that a multiplicity of organisations can access it. Many organisations can and do access it. Insurance companies do these things all the time for obvious reasons, as do banks. Ireland has a Constitution, unlike the UK where there is no written constitution. There is a big difference between what can be done in the context of confidentiality in this country and what is being done in the UK. It is a totally different system. I refer to a marriage between the two systems. What works in the UK may not necessarily work here. I emphasise the point that many people regard their PPSN as private and personal information. It is not an identifier for anything other than access to the system insofar as they are concerned and nobody else. How do we get around that? Have those problems been resolved? They arose two, three or four years ago when a major row blew up in respect of the potential use of the PPSN as a universal identifier.