Mr. John McKeon:

There are a couple of factors. It is not quite like with like and I will explain that. The first is the 2019 figure, which was previously used, was I think up to that point June 2019 as opposed to full year 2019 so there is a time gap.

The second issue, the figure that was previously given was the net cost to the Government, excluding VAT, because the Government pays VAT to itself. For the purpose of the cost benefit analysis a conservative approach was taken of factoring in the VAT as a cost even though, from a Government perspective, it is not actually a cost.

The third element is that the cost, which was published in the cost benefit analysis, also included the online myGov.ieservice. It was not just a public services card. It was the combined public services card and the myGov.ieservice.