Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The correspondence states: "I clearly stated that the Department of Social Protection creates a biometric template of each photograph that is taken during the SAFE registration process, for the purpose of comparing that photograph against the other photographs held by the Department." In essence, the correspondence is saying it is not biometrics that are being used but in recent days it was reported that KPMG had done a report that concluded there was no legal basis. The Data Protection Commission has been involved in this as well. We could be back with the State Claims Agency on this. The Passport Office has a legal basis for using biometric data, but it is a very different environment. A legal basis is required and we should be concerned with regard to the Data Protection Commissioner and a KPMG report that was commissioned and states there is no legal basis for the use of biometric data. This only confuses the situation. Maybe we should be writing back looking for the view of the Department on the recent report prepared by KPMG on whether there is a legal basis. This has the potential to cause legal claims.