Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's acknowledgment of the merits to the public services card and the approach that underpins it. On the specific questions the Deputy has asked around the use of data, any sharing of data between public bodies has to be consistent with the guidance from the Data Protection Commissioner. The commissioner has raised a number of matters on the operation of the card and I believe that the answer back to the matters raised by the commissioner will be published shortly, if they have not already been published. This will be done in public and will deal with any of the matters the commissioner has raised.

With regard to how we can further buttress the sharing of information and how to make sure the sharing of information is done in a way that meets best standards, this is where the data sharing and governance Bill makes a very important contribution. The Bill is currently at pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas. This legislation looks to make very clear the different kinds of datasets that can be held in organisations and how those datasets can be shared with other organisations in a way that is further supported by law. I hope that the passage of the legislation through the Oireachtas might deal with some of the issues referred to by Deputy Shortall and some of the concerns people have. The public services card is now held by 2.3 million individuals across the State. I believe that many of these people understand that at the very least it will allow citizens to get to a point where they only have to share information once to allow them to access multiple services, which will be a big step forward.

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